The spirit of Chinese philanthropy; a study in mutual aid

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THE SPIRIT OF CHINESE
• PHILANTHROPY

A Study in Mutual Aid

BT %

YU-YUE TSU, M. A.

SUBlcnTSD IN PARTIAL FULFILBfSNT OF THE REQUIREMENTS
FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

IN THE.

Faculty of Political Sqence
CoLUMBU University

NEW YORK
I912

« < • • •

• •• • • *

r- ^ » -> *

••!•:: -••.

PREFACE

In this monograph the writer has endeavored to de-
scribe Chinese Philanthropy and to interpret its char-
acteristics and ideals as he understands them. The
subject is greater than can be adequately treated in a
work of the present scope, but it is hoped that no
injustice has been done to the subject and that further
study of it may be stimulated by this presentation.

The writing was begun before the change of govern-
ment in China took place. Some parts of the mono-
graph, touching the political organization of the country
may not therefore exactly fit the new conditions, but as
they are true representations of conditions that obtained
in the immediate past and went far into a remote past,
we have allowed them to stand, as first written.

The problem of population in China in its intimate re-
lation to social wellbeing and progress is of vital interest
not only to China but also to the world. The writer's
interest in it was first aroused by Professor A. A. Ten-
ney's lectures at Columbia University. Professor E, A.
Ross' book, The Changing Chinese^ contains an illumi-
nating study of it, perhaps the most thorough one that
bears upon present conditions in China. The problem
will repay further study.

The writer wishes to record his indebtedness to Pro-
fessor F. H. Giddings, Professor Friedrich Hirth, Dr.

7] 7

< • * • »

* •

• • ••••«■ • •

8 PREFACE [8

R. M. Binder and Mr. Parker Vanamee, for valuable

suggestions in the preparation of the monograph, and

to Professor E. R. A. Seligman, for assistance in put*

ting it through the press.

Y. Y. T.

CBSLSBA IQVASS, NEW YOBX CHY. jipHi, 1912.

V

CONTENTS

rACB

Prsfacb , 7

iNTltODUCTION by DR. FRISDRICH HiRTH 1 3

CHAPTER I

Chinese Philanthropy, in Thought and Practicb

The study of philanthropy 15

I. Philanthropy in Chinese Thought

Philanthropy as a virtue 16

Philanthropy, natural to man 16

Acquirement and development of philanthropy 17

The Slate and philanthropy 19

The goal of state philanthropy 19

Opposition to philanthropy 20

Philanthropy unnatural to man .... 21

Conclusion 23

II. Chinese Philanthropy in Practice

Historical notices 23

Ancient old age pensions . 23

Poor-relief 24

The beginnings of institutional charity and social legislation 24

The poor law of China 26

Ineffectiveness of the law 26

Legal status of popular philanthropic institutions 27

Relative eflEiciency of state and popular control 28

Present organization of philanthropy in China 28

Scope and character of Chinese philanthropy 29

CHAPTER II

Population and Social Well-being

Incipient poverty and its chief cause 31

The population of China 32

Causes of density . . 33

Present causes of prolific reproduction 34

1. Rural conditions . 34

2. Ancestor worship 34

3. Early marriage . . . . ^ 35

Effects of surplus population ... 35

Equilibration between population and means of subsistence : four aspects . . 35

I. Population and tillage of the soil 35

9] 9

lO CONTENTS [lo

PAOB

2. Population and migrations . 37

3. Population and plane of living 38

4. Population and ph]rsical energies ... 39

Regulation of population 40

Indirect methods 40

Direct methods 41

CHAPTER III

Chakitt

Causes of dependence 42

The care of the poor 42

Present stage of charity in China 43

I. Care of Aged Men

Attitude toward the aged 43

Public institutions 44

Home aid 45

Home for the aged 45

A monastic bouse for the aged .... 46

II. Care of Aged Women and Widows

Status of woman and civilization 48

Woman in early times 48

Widowhood 49

Status of woman in China 49

Widowhood in China 50

Honor for fiemale virtue 51

Public aid 52

House of Pure Widowhood 53

Concluding remarks . 56

III. Care of Dependent Children

Desertion of infants 57

Public care of dependent children 59

Home aid 59

The placing out system . 60

Adoption of foundlings 62

Administration 63

Finances 63

State encouragement , 65

Institutional care 66

Modem methods 66

IV. Care of the Destitute Sick

Public health 67

Public responsibility 68

1 1 ] CONTENTS 1 1

WAmm

The free dkpensarj ^ 69

Asylum for the sick 69

Isolation of the diseased 70

Care of defectiTes 70

Free burial 7^

The need of a natioiial health campaign 72

CHAPTER IV

Mutual Bknbfit

Mutual benefit and social consciousness 74

The value of mutnalitjr 75

I. TJk£ Clan OrganiMation

What it is 75

Localisation 76

The social value of clan organization 76

Clan charities ... 78

The Van Clan estate 79

Objects 80

Administratioo 80

Distribution of aid 81

Special grants 82

Conclusion 83

II. Tki Village Camimimty

Local spirit . . 83

The village government 84

Village charities 85

Mutual loan societies 85

Mutual providential associations . • . . 86

III. F^tndnHal and Distrut CMs

The basis of association • • 87

Functions of the dubs : social and charitable 88

IV. Tradi and Crafts Guilds

The basis of association 89

Functions of the guilds : trade and charity 90

Voluntary assessment for charitable purposes 91

Conclusion • 92

CHAPTER V

Civic Bettbiimbnt

Philanthropy as promotion of social welfore ..••.•••••••••• 93

The Chinese government, in theory and in practice .••.•••.... 94

The district municipality ••••••••••••••.••..••• 95

^ I

12

CONTENTS

[12

PlKtemalism 95

Defects in admmistmtioti 96

Slate neglect 97

Practical democracy 97

P^jpular co-operatiTe nndertakingi 9S

I. Fret Edncatipnal Opportunitus

Goremment education 98

Free charity schools 99

Public lectures 99

literaiy censorship . . • 100

II. JHibiic SafUy and JVcHciUn

The life-saying association at Wnhn . loi

LifeboaU . . . I02

Management and finances 103

The red boats of Ichang 105

Fire protection 106

III. Fne Public Service

Roads, lights* bridges 107

Free ferry service 107

IV. Municipal Self 'gevemmunt by the PeopU

Its eToIntioD 108

The case of the Newchwang Goild 109

Local self-government, a growing movement no

The new political regime in

CHAPTER VI

Conclusion : Risk of National SELF-coNsaomziBSB and Solidakitt

Chinese philanthropy, a product of national genius 113

Its democratic foondation 113

^jr/rsV ^ r^/j of minor social groups 113

Absence of national consciousness in the past 113

Poor internal communication 114

Geographical isolation and absence of conflict 114

Governmental decentralization 114

The new national consciousness and solidarity 116

International relationships 116

Improved internal communication . 116

The new education , 117

The nation-wide basis of philanthropy 118

A new national personality 119

BiBUOO&APHY lai

VrrA i«3

INTRODUCTION

In his great standard work The Middle Kingdom (Rev.
Ed., 1904, vol. ii, p. 265) the late Professor S. W. Williams
says with regard to the benevolent institutions of the
Chinese : " In large towns voluntary societies are found,
having for their object the relief of suffering, which ought
to be mentioned, as the Chinese have not been fairly cred-
ited with what they do in this line."

It has also been maintained in the early days of our rela-
tions with China that the native efforts in the matter of
public charity are not worth much and that the spirit of
benevolence was not an originally Chinese virtue. There
may not be many who hold such views nowadays, but it
appears that, to convince skeptical critics, the truth has to
be traced back to the most ancient literature to show how,
far from being introduced and fostered by western mission-
aries, as some feel inclined to assume, the spirit of charity
to one's neighbor has originated and developed on Chinese
soil itself. To prove this, it seems, there was nobody better
qualified than a patriotic Chinese whose education might be
expected to do justice to every side of the question. Such
is Mr. Andrew Yu-Yue Tsu, the author of this essay, who
combined researches in Chinese literature, carried on in
seminar work under the Department of Chinese with west-
em methods studied in the Departments of Sociology and
Social Economy.

Friedrich Hirth,
Professor of Chinese,

Department of Chinese,

Columbia University,

New York, May w, 1912.
13] U

CHAPTER I

Chinese Philanthropy in Thought and Practice

The Study of Philanthropy. — Philanthropy has been
defined as "universal good-will," or "spirit of active
good-will towards one's fellow-men, especially as shown
in efforts to promote their welfare." * As a social phenom-
enon, philanthropy had originated in sub-human grega-
riousness and mutual aid, but its wonderful development
has been achieved in human society through human
consciousness. The process whereby philanthropy has
reached its present status may be traced by pointing out
its several stages. As an ideal, philanthropy was first
regarded as a personal virtue, a quality of the pious soul,
and as such received tremendous encouragement and de-
velopment by a close alliance with religion. But at pres-
ent, philanthropy shows a tendency to dissociate itself
from religion and to occupy an independent position.
The conception of it as a personal virtue is being merged
into the larger conception of it as a social virtue. As
a social virtue, philanthropy seems coextensive with
consciousness of kind. From a narrow ideal, coinciding
with family, clannish, tribal and national limitations of
sympathy, philanthropy is tending toward universalism
pari passu with the growth of sympathy. In practice,
philanthropy began as a palliative for distress, as alms-

* Webster's New International Dictionary.. Reference History edi-
tion, 191 1.

15] 15

1 6 THE SPIRIT OF CHINESE PHILANTHROPY [i6

giving, grew into institutional charity, and finally became
a science, variously known as scientific philanthropy or
social economy. It began with emphasis upon the indi-
vidual ; it now seems to be laying more and more emphasis
upon the social environment. Instead of aiming to im-
prove the condition of the poor and destitute directly,
it aims to do so indirectly by the improvement of such
social conditions as cause poverty and destitution. It
has adopted as its goal the total elimination of the causes
of poverty and misery in society.' In adopting such a
goal, and working toward its realization, the philan-
thropist joins hands with the sociologist, the econo-
mist, the ethicist, the statesman and other workers in
other fields of human effort for progress toward a perfect
society. '

I. PHILANTHROPY IN CHINESE THOUGHT

Philanthropy us a virtue: As a virtue philanthropy has
been highly exalted by the Chinese moralists of all ages.
Both Confucius and Mencius regarded it as the disting-
uishing characteristic of man,^ as one of the funda-
mental constituents of nobleness and superiority of char-
acter.^ Asked by one of his disciples about philanthropy,
Confucius replied. 'It is to love all men.''

Philanthropy natural to man: High and noble as the
virtue of philanthropy is, it is nevertheless conceived <>f

* Dcvinc, Principles of Relief, p. i8i.

2 Spencer, Principles of Ethics, vol. ii, pp. 432-3 Giddings, Principles
of Sociology, pp. 420-2.

* Analects of Confucius, tr. Legge, * Chinese Classics*, vol. i, p. 40S;
Mencius, tr. heggt, ' Chinese Classics \ vol. ii, p. 485.

* Analects, p. 320.

* Ibid., p. a6o.

17] IN THOUGHT AND PRACTICE 17

as lying naturally within the capacity of every person.
Thus it is written in the Classics:

The feeling" of commiseration belong^s to all men ; so does
that of shame and dislike ; and that of reverence and respect ;
and that of approving: and disapproving. The feeling of com-
miseration implies the principle of benevolence ; that of shame
and dislike, the principle of righteousness ; that of reverence
and respect, the principle of propriety ; and that of approving
and disapproving, the principle of knowledge. Benevolence,
righteousness, propriety, and knowledge, are not infused into
us from without. We are certainly furnished with them. . . .
Hence it is said " Seek and you will find them. Neglect and
you will lose them." Men differ fron^ one another in regard
to them ; — some as much again as others, some five times as
much, and some to an incalculable amount : — it is because
they cannot carry out fully their natural powers.*

The spontaneity of sympathy in man is set forth in the
following lines :

All men have a mind which cannot bear to see the sufferings
of others. . . . My meaning may be illustrated thus ; If men
suddenly see a child about to fall into a well, they will with-
out exception experience a feeling of alarm and distress.
They will feel so not as a ground on which they may gain the
favor of the child's parents, nor as a ground on which they
may seek the praise of their neighbors and friends, nor from
a dislike to the reputation of having been unmoved by such a
thing. From this case, we may perceive that the feeling of
compassion is essential to man.'

Acquirement and development of philanthropy: Ap-
parently opposed to this view of human nature, yet not

* MenciuSj tr. Legge, op. cit, pp. 402^403.
■ Ibid., pp. 20i-fl.

1 8 THE SPIRIT OF CHINESE PHILANTHROPY [ig

really so, is the view of another school of ethicists, whose
chief representative is Hsin-tse. His contention is that
all social qualities and sentiments, which we attribute to
human nature, are not original but acquired ones. Thus
he says :

Man's natiu*e is radically evil or eg^otistic ; when it is g^ood
or altruistic, it is the product of art. ... By nature a man
when hungjy desires to eat, when cold, to clothe himself,
when tired, to rest. Yet to-day, a man seeing his father or
brother in the same condition will desist from self-gratification
in deference to his father or brother. Such action or rather
inhibition from action is against his nature, but it is in ac-
cordance with the principles of a dutiful son or of an affec-
tionate brother and with the established morals and rights.
Following nature there will be no self-restraint or deference
to others.*

Like the other powers, the power of philanthropy is
capable of development through exercise. Thus after
saying that the four principles of benevolence, righteous-
ness, property and knowledge are natural and essential
to man, Mencius continues :

Men have these four principles just as they have their four
limbs. When men, having these four principles, yet say of
themselves that they cannot develop them, they play the thief
with themselves, and he who says of his prince that he cannot
develop them, plays the thief with his prince. Since all men
have these four principles in themselves, let them know to
give them all their development and completion, and the issue
will be like that of fire which has begun to bum, or that of a
spring which has begun to find vent. Let them have their
complete development, and they will suffice to love and pro-
tect all within the four seas. Let them be denied that devel*

* Hsin Tzii, Essay on Human Nature.

19] IN THOUGHT AND PRACTICE 19

opment, and they will not suffice for a man to serve his parents
with/

State and philanthropy: Ancient ethico-political
thinkers have always thought of ethics and politics as
closely allied. The state is regarded as existing for the
promotion of human happiness; the best government is
one which is truly benevolent in its solicitude for the
welfare of the people. Hence the term 'benevolent
government ' occurs frequently in the Chinese Classics.

Once Mencius was consulted by King Hwuy of Leang
regarding Government. The king complained that in-
spite of his efforts for the good of his people, he failed
to attract them to himself, and he wanted to know the
reason for it. Mencius, knowing that the cause of the
failure was the luxury of the court and its indifference
to the real needs of the people gave the following
pointed reply :

Your dogs and swine eat the food of men, and you do not
know to make any restrictive arrangements. There are people
dying from famine on the roads, and you do not know to is-
sue the stores of your gfranaries, for them. When people die,
you say, " It is not owing to me ; it is owing: to the year."
In what does this differ from stabbing a man and killing him,
and then saying ; "It was not I ; it was the weapon" ? Let
your Majesty cease to blame on the year, and instantly from
all the empire the people will come to you.*

Goal of state philanthropy: The benevolent office of
the state must be for the elimination of material destitu-
tion among the people, and the realization of economic
sufficiency, as its first duty, for without economic suf-

* Mencius, tr. Legge, op, ciU, p. 203.

* Ihid., p. 132.

2Q THE SPIRIT OF CHINESE PHILANTHROPY [20

ficiency, there would be no possibility of spiritual prog-
ress. The picture of economic sufficiency among the
people is thus depicted :

Around the homestead with its five mow, the space beneath
the walls was planted with mulberry trees, with which the
women nourish silk-worms, and thus the old were able to
have silk to wear. Each family had five brood hens and two
brood sows, which were kept in their breeding seasons, and
thus the old were able to have flesh to eat. The husbandmen
cultivated their farms of hundred mow, and thus their families
of eight mouths were secured against want.*

Opposition to philanthropy: Just as philanthropy is
exalted by Confucius and Mencius as the distinguish-
ing characteristic of humanity and as a virtue to be
cherished by all, so it is denounced by Chuang-Tzu, the
Taoist, as a false outgrowth of human nature and as a
disturbing factor in human wellbeing. In his writings,
there is an account of an imaginery interview between
Confucius and Lao Tzu, the founder of Taoism, in which
the principle of philanthropy is made to appear in the
light above described : •

When Confucius was going west to place his works in the
Imperial library of the House of Chow, Tzu Lu counselled
him, saying, " I have heard that a certain librarian of the
Cheng department, by name Lao Tan, has resigned and re-
tired into private life. Now as you. Sir, wish to deposit your
works, it would be advisable to go and interview him."

" Certainly," said Confucius ; and he thereupon went to see
Lao Tztl. The latter would not hear of the proposal ; so
Confucius began to expound the doctrines of his twelve
canons, in order to convince Lao Tzti.

* Mencius, tr. Legge, op, cit, p. 461.

^ ■ Chuang TxH, Mystic, Moralist, Social Reformer, tr. H. A. Giles^
pp. 165-167.

2 1 ] IN THO UGHT AND PRACTICE 2 1

This is nonsense/' cried Lao Tzti, interruptini^ him.
*' Tell me what are your criteria."

" Charity," replied Confucius, " and duty towards one's
neighbor."

" Tell me, please," asked Lao TztL, '* are these part of man's
origfinal nature ? "

** They are," answered Confucius. ** Without charity, the
superior man could not become what he is. Without duty
to one's neighbor, he would be of no effect, These two
belong to the original nature of a pure man. What further
would you have" ?

" Tell me," said Lao Tzti, " in what consist charity and
duty to one's neighbor ? "

'* They consist," answered Confucius, " in a capacity for
rejoicing in all things ; in universal love, without the element
of self. These are the characteristics of charity and duty to
one's neighbor."

" What stuff ! " cried Lao Tzu. ** Does not universal love
contradict itself ? Is not your elimination of self a positive
manifestation of self ? Sir, if you would cause the empire not
to lose its source of nourishment, there is the universe, its
regularity is unceasing ; there are the sun and moon, their
brightness is unceasing ; there are the stars, their groupings
never change ; there are birds and beasts, they flock without
varying : there are trees and shrubs, they grow upwards with-
out exception. Be like these ; follow Tao ; and you will be
perfect. Why then these vain struggles after charity and
duty to one's neighbor, as though beating a drum in search
of a fugitive. Alas I Sir, you have brought much confusion
into the mind of man."

Philanthropy unnatural to man, — Chuang Tzu's view
of human nature is therefore diametrically opposed to
Confucius and Mencius. To try to make men charitable
is as much destruction of his nature and so injurious as
it is to try to lengthen the legs of a duck or to shorten
those of a crane. In either case, there is an attempt to

22 THE SPIRIT OF CHINESE PHILANTHROPY [22

go against what has been foreordained by natural provi-
dence, and the result is suffering, physical for the one and
moral for the other. All is well with nature, Chuang
Tzu would say ; nature is self-sufficient, let it evolve itself
undisturbed by human artifice ; this is the royal road to
complete contentment and happiness of life. Thus he
says :

Intentional charity and intentional duty to one's neighbor are
surely not included in our moral nature. Yet what sorrow
these have involved. . . . And the charitable of the a^fe z^
about sorrowing over the ills of the age, while the non-charit-
able cut through the nattu'al conditions of things in their
greed after place and wealth. Surely then in^tentional charity
and duty to one's neighbor are not included in our moral
nature. Yet from the time of the Three Dynasties downwards
what a fuss has been made about them I

Those who cannot make perfect without arc, line, com-
passes and square, injure the natural constitution of things.
Those who require cords to bind and glue to stick, interfere
with the natural functions of things. And those who seek to
satisfy the mind of man by hampering with ceremonies and
music and preaching charity and duty to one's neighbor,
thereby destroy the intrinsicality of things.

. . . And just as all things are produced, and none can tell
how they are produced, so do all things possess their own
intrinsic qualities and non can tell how they possess them.
From time immemorial this has always been so, without varia-
tion. Why then should charity and duty to one's neighbor
be as it were glued or corded on, and introduced into the
domain of Tao, to give rise to doubt among mankind ? '

Destruction of the natural integrity of things, an order to
produce articles of various kinds— -this is the fault of the artisan.
Annihilation of Tao in order to practice charity and duty to
one's neighbor — this is the error of the Sage.*

* Chuang TzU, tr. Giles, pp. 101-102. » Ibid., p. 108.

23] IN THOUGHT AND PRACTICE 23

In concluding this discussion of philanthropy in Chi-
nese thought, we may say that the Chinese nation has
always considered Confucianism orthodox and Taoism
heretical. In spite of the beauty and vigor of his philos-
ophy and his language, Chuang Tzu has not succeeded
in breaking the influence of the teachings of Confucian-
ism upon the nation and its civilization.

II. CHINESE PHILANTHROPY IN PRACTICE

Historical Notices, — Chinese history has been written
not as a history of a people, but as a chronicle of kings
and emperors. Hence while giving detailed accounts of
royal lives, deeds and reigns, it gives meagre notices of
the lives and activities and conditions of the people, and
the latter, in fact, only where illumined by contact with
royalty. This being so, we find that the practice of phi-
lanthropy, so far as recorded, has been contemplated as
originating with the rulers, as a function of the state, as
imperial paternalism flowing downwards to benefit the
people, while practically nothing is said of initiative and
practice in philanthropy on the part of the people them-
selves. Such a representation becomes the historians of
the court, whose function is the preparation of the his-
torical archives of the reigns and dynasties for the glori-
fication of dead kings and emperors. We are not there-
fore to infer from historical notices that the people have
been nothing else than receivers of Imperial charity. As
we shall see in the following chapters, popular initiative
and participation in philanthropy seem to be so prevalent
in reality as to overshadow whatever Imperial initiative
and participation there is in the same.

Ancient Old- Age Pensions: The earliest rulers, known
as the Five Rulers (2255-2205 B. C), were described as
setting the example of nourishing the aged of the nation
for later rulers :

24 THE SPIRIT OF CHINESE PHILANTHROPY [24

The lord of Yii, nourished the aged (who had retired from the
service) of the state in (the school called) the higher hsiang,
and the aged of the common people (and officers who had
not obtained rank) in (the school called) the lower hsiang.
The sovereigns of Hsia nourished the former in (the school
called) the hsii on the east, and the latter in (that called) the
hsii on the west. The men of Yin nourished the former in
the school of the right, and the latter in that of the left. . . /

We may regard this as the earliest instance of Old Age
Pension System sanctioned by the state.

Poor Relief : The poor are described as of four classes :

One who while quite young, lost his father was called an
orphan ; an old man who had lost his sons was called a soli-
tary. An old man who had lost his wife was called a pitiable
widower ; an old woman who had lost her husband was called
a poor widow. These four classes were the most forlorn of
Heaven's people, and had none to whom to tell their wants ;
they all received regular allowances.

The dumb, the deaf, the lame, such as have lost a member,
pigmies and mechanics, were all fed according to what work
they were able to do.'

They received the emperor's bounties, as he ordered his
officers periodically to open his granaries and vaults and
distribute their contents to the poor and friendless and
the needy.3

Beginnings of Institutional Charity and Social Legisla-
tion: During the Chow dynasty (1122-255 B. C), the
state periodically gave relief to orphans in spring and
summer, and during the Han dynasty (206 B. C.-25

* Li Kif tr. J. Legge, in Sacred Books of the East, ed. F. Max Miiller,
vol. xxvii, pp. 242, 466.

• Ibid., pp. 243-244.
» Ibid,, p. 264.

25] IN THOUGHT AND PRACTICE 25

A. D.), an emperor ordered state support of neglected
children and children of poor families with supply from
the public granaries. During the Sung dynasty (960-
1260 A. D.) public lands were devoted to the cultivation
of grains, which went to fill public granaries established
in all districts ; buildings were erected for the reception
and care of cast-away children.' An emperor of the
Yuan dynasty (1260-1368 A. D.) in 1271 ordered aim-
houses to be built for the shelter of the poor." In 1659,
Emperor Sun-chi issued an edict in which desertion or
destruction of infants was severely condemned. He ob-
served therein that it seemed strange to him that while
the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air cherished
their young, rational beings should want to destory their
daughters; that the destruction of infant life was a
blacker crime than robbery, for all creatures were or-
dained of Heaven to live.^ In 171 1, Emperor Kang Hsi
ordered the establishment of foundling hospitals through-
out the empire. A private hospital that was established
two years after this date at Shanghai survives to this
day.* In 1724, a government almshouse was opened at
Canton; and in 1739, Emperor Kien Lung ordered it to
feed 4,676 destitute persons.^ In 1783, the same Em-
peror reprinted the edict of 1659, condemning persons
committing infanticide to be punished with 100 blows
and exile for a year and half.^ In 1805, (9th year of
Kia King) a private charities society, at Shanghai, the

* Chinese Repository^ vol. xiv, p. 184.

■ H. C. Chen, Economic Principles of Confucius and His School,
vol. ii, p. 298w

» J. R. Grey, Walks In The City of Canton, p. 571.

* Chinese Repository, vol. xiv, p. 180.

* China Review, vol. ii, p. Qi-

26 THE SPIRIT OF CHINESE PHILANTHROPY [26

Hall of United Benevolence, was formed ; ' since then, it
has had an unbroken career. In 1873, a proclamation
encouraging care and preservation of infant life was
issued by the provincial authorities of Hupeh."

The above account of the beginnings of institutional
charities and social legislation is far from being a com-
plete statement of what took place during the years
mentioned ; it is intended only to serve as an indication
of the development of practical philanthropy in China.

The poor law of China: The law of China recognizes
the right to relief of those dependent persons, who may
be classed as the ' worthy poor.' This right is contained
in the following law :

All poor destitute widowers and widows, the fatherless and
children, the helpless and the infirm, shall receive sufficient
maintenance and protection from the magistrates of their
native city or district, wherever they have neither relations
nor connections upon whom they can depend for support.
Any magistrate refusing such maintenance and protection,
shall be punished with 60 blows.

Also when any such persons are maintained and protected
by government, the superintending magistrate and his sub-
ordinates, if failing to afford them the legal allowance of food
and raiment, shall be punished in proportion to the amount
of the deficiency, according to the law against an embezzle-
ment of government stores.'

The law not only recognizes the right to relief, but
also stipulates that the relief should be sufficient, and
that the negligent magistrate must be punished.

Ineffectiveness of the law: Good as the law is, there

* Chinese Repository, vol. xv, p. 402 et seq.
" Grey, op. city p. 575-

• Ta Tsing Leu Lee, tr. G. T. Staunton, p. 95.

27] IN THOUGHT AND PRACTICE 27

are serious defects in its administration. In the first place,
its enforcement would require poor-law administrative
machinery, but no such provision is made by the Im-
perial Government, and so its provisions merely impose
additional duties upon magistrates already burdened
with other functions. In the second place, supposing
poor relief were seriously contemplated by the magis-
trate, he is met by another difficulty : he must find his
own funds for it, from the same source that he usually gets
his official emoluments, from the land tax. Theoretically,
he is expected to find funds for all kinds of undertak-
ings from this source, but because of his own insignifi-
cant official salary, of his need of paying the government
employees in his district as well as of furnishing fixed
revenue for the Provincial and Imperial Administrations,
practically he is unable to find much left for poor re-
lief. In the third place, to increase taxation is out of
the question, so long as there remains Imperial sanction
that the land tax is forever fixed, and so long as the
people are without voice or vote in the government.'

Legal Status of Popular Philanthropic Institutions :
For these reasons, the excellent law has remained prac-
tically a dead letter on the statute-book. There are
government reliefs and charities, but their number is in-
significant compared with those philanthropic insti-
tutions that have been organized by the people them-
selves and are controlled by them. These popular
institutions being under the law, of necessity, are nom-
inally under the supervision of the civil authorities, in
whose jurisdiction they are placed. There is some form
of legal incorporation, whose chief elements are approval
of the institutions by the civil authorities and their

' For further discussion of this point, see chap, v, infra.

28 THE SPIRIT OF CHINESE PHILANTHROPY [28

promise to protect (and sometimes, financially to assist)
them. But the real control of the institutions is not in
the hands of the civil authorities, but in those of the
people, and their support is derived almost entirely from
voluntary sources rather than from official ones.
. Relative Efficiency of State and Popular Control:
The popular character and control of philanthropic in-
stitutions cannot be too strongly advocated. First,
popular institutions give the people opportunity to be
interested in social work ; they are incidentally educative
agencies for the development of social responsibility in
the minds of the people. A government institution is not
as interesting to the people, for it is apparently far re-
moved from their participation therein. Secondly, popu-
lar institutions supported by the public are more respon-
sive to criticism, whether approving or disapproving, by
the people, and so tend more to efficiency, than govern-
ment institutions whose support is only indirectly and
remotely derived from the people. Thirdly, the manage-
ment of philanthropic institutions of the people is gen-
erally entrusted to the hands of the most public-spirited
and esteemed persons of the locality, for the people like to
see their interests promoted ; whereas, if philanthropic
institutions were under state control they would generally
be regarded as a part of mere official routine work at one
extreme or as a part of a spoils system at the other ex-
treme. For these reasons, it has been fortunate that
most social and philanthropic works in China have been
initiated and controlled by the people themselves. This
does not suggest enmity between the people and the gov-
ernment, but it suggests the practical democracy of the
nation.

Present organization of philanthropy in China:
Every city or district or town has its own philanthropic

2g] IN THOUGHT AND PRACTICE 29

institutions, supported by the inhabitants and adminis-
tered by their representatives. There is usually one in-
stitution in every place which is larger than any of the
rest, and this institution serves as a central organization
for the place, corresponding, in position, but only partly
in nature to charity organization societies in the cities
of America and Europe. Thus, we have the Hall of
United Benevolence at Shanghai, the Practical Benevolent
Society at Ningpo, the Hall of Sustaining Love at Can-
ton, the Hall of Benevolence at Chefoo, e^ cetera^ all of
which are composite organizations with special depart-
ments or forms of activity varying from five to seventeen
in number.

Scope and Character of Chinese Philanthropy: In
illustration of the activities of central charities societies,
such as we have mentioned in the preceding paragraph,
we may cite those of the Hall of Benevolence of Chefoo : '
The seventeen forms of activities are (i) Non-interest
loans to the poor; (2) Burial facilities for the poor; (3)
Waste-paper collection ; (4) Assisting ship-wrecked per-
sons; (5) Fire protection; (6) Aid to widows; (7) Re-
ception of deserted infants; (8) Free supply of books to
the poor who are desirous of reading; (9) Free educa-
tion for poor children; (10) Orphanage; (11) Indus-
trial school for poor girls; (12) Refuge for the cure of
opium-habit; (13) Refuge for the homeless sick; (14)
Hospital work; (15) Refuge for the poor in winter;
(16) Free kitchen; (17) Vaccination.

Chinese philanthropy may be divided into three gen-
eral groups : I. Charity, in the strict sense of the word,
meaning disinterested aid to the poor ; II. Mutual Benefit,
or the method of relief and protection by reciprocal

"^Decennial Report, 1882-1891. China: Imperial Maritime Customs
Report. I. Statistical Series, no. 6, first issue, p. 60.

30 THE SPIRIT OF CHINESE PHILANTHROPY [30

efforts ; III. Civic Betterment, or the promotion of pub-
lic welfare through voluntary co-operation on the part
of the inhabitants. There are other activities which are
benevolent in nature, such as the humane treatment of
animals, which cannot be included in the above division.
But as far as the human content is concerned, Charity,
Mutual Benefit and Civic Betterment succinctly describe
the character and scope of Chinese Philanthropy.

CHAPTER II

Population and Social Well-being

Incipient Poverty : Poverty is known to exist exten-
sively in China. It is not obtrusive poverty, but per-
vading incipiency toward poverty, that obtains there. It
is expressed in the smallness of capital, in the easy pre-
cipitation of persons from frugality into destitution in
adverse times, in the lowness of wages, and in the scarcity
of luxury and comforts of life. The chief cause of this
incipient poverty, we agree with Professor Ross, lies in
the over-pressure of population upon means of subsist-
ence. He says :

Most of the stock explanations of national poverty throw no
light on the condition of the Chinese. They are not impov-
erished by the niggardliness of the soil, for China is one of the
most bountiful seats occupied by man. Their state is not the
just recompense of sloth, for no people is better broken to
heavy, unremitting toil. The trouble is not lack of intelligence
in their work, for they are skilful farmers and clever in the
arts and crafts. Nor have they been dragged down into their
pit of wolfish competition by wasteful vices. . . . They are
not victims of the rapacity of their rulers, for if their govern-
ment does little for them, it exacts little. In good times its
fiscal claims are far from crushing. With four times our num-
ber the national budget is a fifth of ours. The basic conditions
of prosperity — liberty of person and security of property —
are well established. . . . Nor is the lot of the masses due to
exploitation. . . . There are great stretches of fertile agricul-
tural country where the struggle for subsistence is stem and
31] 31

32 THE SPIRIT OF CHINESE PHILANTHROPY [32

yet the cultivator owns his land and implements and pays
tribute to no man. . . For a grinding mass poverty that, can-
not be matched in the Occident there remains but one general
cause, namely, the crowding of population upon the means of
subsistence.^

If the elimination of poverty is the fundamental prob-
lem of philanthropy, then the study of population is of
paramount importance. Our conviction is that the solu-
tion of the problem lies in the healthy equilibration of
population with the supply of subsistence and wealth, ac-
cording to some worthy standard of living, through social
regulation of population, on the one hand, and promo-
tion of economic prosperity on the other.

The Population of China : No one knows exactly what
is the population of China, although the Chinese govern-
ment has from time to time made estimates, more or
less accurate, from returns of taxation units and from
enumeration of families. Probably the estimate of E. H.
Parker (385,000,000) is the most reliable." Similarly, the
exact density of population is unknown, although as to
the fact of denseness there seems to be no question.
Smith says that for the plain of north China, the prob-
able density for the more sparsely populated districts
is 300 persons to the square mile, and for the more
thickly-settled regions, from 1,000 to 1,500 persons per
square mile.' F. H. King, formerly professor of agri-
cultural physics in the University of Wisconsin, who
went to China to study Chinese farming, writes that
whereas in the United States land and population are

1 E. A. Ross, The Changing Chinese, pp. 95-96.

* China, Past and Present, p. 30; see H. B. Morse, Administration
and Trade of China, p. 203.

• A. H. Smith, Village Life in China, p. 19.

33] POPULATION AND SOCIAL WELL-BEING 33

in the ratio of 20 acres to one person, in China they are
in the ratio of one acre to one person, and of that one
acre half is arid and unproductive. Of the real density
of cultivated land in China, America and Japan, the fol-
lowing summary is gathered from Professor King's
book:' Shantung Province has 1,783 people, 212 cattle
or donkeys and 399 swine, or 1,995 consumers and rough-
food transformers per square mile of farm land ; Amer-
ica's rural districts in 1900 had 61 persons and 30 horses
and mules for one square mile of improved farm land;
Japan in 1907 had 1,922 persons and 125 horses and
cattle per square mile; Chungming Island at the mouth
of Yangtse River, China, in 1902 had according to official
census, 270 square miles of land, with 3,700 persons per
square mile.

Causes of Density : We know but dimly the historic
process whereby China became populated and densely
populated as time went on. It is certain that the Chi-
nese people are not indigenous inhabitants ; they came
from without the land. They were first heard of moving
from the north and west down the valley of the Hwang
Ho (Yellow River), and spreading thence to the other
parts of the country along natural water-courses.* From
the very first they were described as cultivators of the
soil. In their progress they both assimilated the inhab-
itants already there and drove many tribes into refuge
among the mountains of the northwestern part. We
may conclude that both congregation and genetic aggre-
gation 3 had operated to make China populous. The fer-
tility of the land, combined with its accessibility, at-
tracted immigration and settlement, and the fertility

' F. H. King, Farmers of Forty Centuries, pp. 3-4.

' Parker. China, Her History, Diplomacy and Commerce^ p. 5 et seq.

* Terms as defined in Giddings, Principles of Sociology, pp. 89, 91.

34 THE SPIRIT OF CHINESE PHILANTHROPY [34

combined with the art of agriculture enabled people to
obtain abundant subsistence, and was thus conducive to
rapid reproduction. But whatever the historic process
whereby China has become one of the most populous na-
tions of the earth, we may mention some causes of pro-
lific reproduction to-day.

Present Causes of Prolific Reproduction : 1. Rural
Conditions: The population of China is largely rural,
having agriculture as its main occupation. "By far the
larger part of the most numerous people on the globe
live in villages. - . . The traveler will be impressed with
the inconceivably great number of Chinese altogether
outside of the great centres of urban population.' For
the farmer, the circuit of food-getting or the relation be-
tween labor and subsistence is the simplest, since he is
able to feed himself and his family without recourse to
third parties. We believe that this facility in food-
getting tends to encourage the rearing of many chil-
dren. Moreover, the unchanging and monotonous rural
life, lacking the distracting influences of urban life, tends
to confine the farmer's interests to his immediate family
and thus to intensify his fondness for children. Finally,,
the desire for children is also strengthened by need for
farm helpers, and by the wish to see one's land pass down
to posterity without going out of the family.

2. Ancestor worship : Ancestor worship puts a
premium on male progeny, since only male descendants
are eligible for religious and sacrificial services before the
manes of the departed. Naturally this tradition creates
in the parents the desire to have male children, in order
that their posthumous welfare may be assured. From
this, perhaps, began the association of family prosperity

* Smith, op. cit.f p. 15.

35] POPULATION AND SOCIAL WELL-BEING 35

with male progeny and is, perhaps, the basis of the crav-
ing for progeny, the cause for creation of large families.

3. Early marriage'. Ancestral worship and the patri-
archal family encourage early marriage. Sons live with
their parents even after coming of age; they hold no
private property until the death of the head of the family.
Marriages are arranged for by the parents, who often find
themselves under the necessity of supporting their sons'
families. Hence, the financial check upon early marriage
among the young is absent. Moreover, the dependence
of women upon men, the absence of self-support on the
part of women, facilitates early marriage. Early marriage
causes rapid multiplication of population.

Effects of surplus population : The Malthusian theory
of the growth of population maintains that there is an
intimate relation between population and food-supply.
This relation may be called the equilibration between
population and food-supply. In order to present clearly
the process as it seems to be in operation to-day in
China, its effects will be considered under four aspects.
Those extraordinary ways whereby population is usually
relieved of its surplus, such as famines, pestilence, wars,
and so forth, which Malthus emphasized, will be ignored
and more attention directed to the conditions of living,
consequent upon congestion of population.

Eour Aspects of Equilibration:

I. Population and Tillage of the Soil: The main
source of food-supply is the soil ; hence labor spent in til-
lage becomes the principal means of support. The in-
creased demand for food because of the increase of popu-
lation may be met in two ways, (i) intension cultivation of
lands already under service, and (ii) extension of the area
of cultivation. Both ways have been used in China. It

36 THE SPIRIT OF CHINESE PHILANTHROPY [36

has been observed that, whereas there are 20 acres of land
for one person in America there is only one acre for one
person in China, and of this one acre, half is arid and
unproductive. But severe intensive cultivation has en-
abled one sixth of an acre of good land to support a
man.' The continuous struggle for food has made the
Chinese expert agriculturists without the aid of science.
But intensive cultivation is limited by the law of dimin-
ishing returns ; it will not go beyond the point where
labor fails to get its requisite compensation. New
lands must therefore be sought in order to keep up with
the demand for food-supply. Professor Ross witnesses
that land is utilized in China as perhaps it has never been
elsewhere. All available productive land is under culti-
vation, and there is little waste land or pasturage. He
draws a vivid picture, as follows :

To win new plots for tillage, human sweat has been poured
out like water. Clear up to the top the foothills have been
carved into terraced fields. On a single slope I counted
forty-seven such fields running up like the steps of a Brob-
dingnagian staircase. And the river bed, five hundred feet
below, between the thin streams that wander over it until the
autumn rains cover it with a turbid flood, has been smoothed
and diked into hundreds of gem-like paddy fields green with the
young rice. In the mountains, where the mantle of brown
soil covering the rocks is too thin to be sculptured into level
fields, the patches of wheat and com follow the natural slope
and the hoe must be used instead of the plough. Two such
plots have I seen at a measured angle of forty-five degrees, and
any number tilted at least forty degrees from the horizontal.
From their huts near the wooded top of the range half a mile
above you, men clamber down and cultivate Lilliputian

* F. H. King, Farmers of Forty Centuries^ p. 194.

37] POPULATION AND SOCIAL WELL-BEING 37

patches of earth lodgfed in pockets among the black, naked
rocks

Nowhere can the watcher of man's struggle with his en-
vironment find a more wonderful spectacle than meets the eye
from a certain seven-thousand-foot pass amid the great tangle
of mountains in West China that gives birth to the Han, the
Wei and the rivers that make famed Szechuan the " Four-
river Province." Save where steepness or rock-outcropping
forbids, the slopes are cultivated from the floor of the Tung
Ho valley right up to the summits five thousand feet above.
In this vertical mile there are different crops for different al-
titudes — vegetables below, then com, lastly wheat. Some-
times the very apex of the mountain wears a green peaked
cap of rye. The aerial farms are crumpled into the great
folds of the mountains and their borders follow with a poetic
grace the outthrust or incurve of the slopes

The heart-breaking labor of redeeming and tilling these
upper slopes that require a climb of some thousands of feet
from one's cave home is a sure sign of population pressure.
It calls up the picture of a swelling human lake, somehow
without egress from the valley, rising and rising until it fairly
lifts cultivation over the summits of the mountains. In June
these circling tiers of verdant undulating sky-farms are an
impressive, even a beautiful sight ; yet one cannot help think-
ing of the grim, ever-present menace of hunger which alone
could have fostered people to such prodigies of toil.*

Incidentally, deforestation must result from extension
of cultivation, and because of lack of knowledge of the
physiographic consequences of deforestation, there has
been little attempt at reforestation. To the deforestation
of hillsides is due the innumerable floods of the rivers,
which have caused untold suffering among the people of
China.

II. Population and Migrations: That migrations of

^ The Changing Chinese, pp. 72-74.

38 THE SPIRIT OF CHINESE PHILANTHROPY [38

peoples have been caused almost entirely by physical con-
ditions affecting food supply seems to be a well-recog-
nized etiological fact.* From very ancient times, there
have been recorded movements of population in China
from one part to another to relieve congestion.* There
must be considerable movements of population within
the Chinese empire following the destructions of popula-
tion in certain parts during rebellions, famines and
floods, but of such intra-migrations we have no statis-
tical knowledge.

Emigration from China to other countries has been a
more conspicuous phenomenon. Probably ten millions ^
of Chinese are now residing in foreign lands, mostly in the
islands of the East Indies and in America. This number,
large as it is, is insignificant compared with the 400,000,-
000 in China, but is most significant of the intense
struggle for food, when taken along with the fact that
the Chinese people are not strong in migratory instincts,
but deeply attached to their homeland.

III. Population and Plane of Living. : Where the
command over means of subsistence remains practically
the same, a surplus of population results in general im-
poverishment. Each inhabitant must work harder for
his living and receive less compensation for his labor ;
and the final result is the reduction of comforts of life,
and the lowering of the plane of living. The real cost of
an intense struggle for life does not end here, but in the
deprivation of leisure time and surplus energy, which are
all-essential for material and spiritual progress. May it
not be that the arrest of civilization in China, of cultural,
artistic, philosophical and scientific development, in which

* E. Huntington, Pulse of Asia.

' H. C Chen, Economic Principles of Confucius^ vol. ii, p. 301.

• Ross, op, cit., p. 106.

39] POPULATION AND SOCIAL WELL-BEING 39

ancient China was so renowned, has been largely due to
this deprivation of leisure time and depletion of surplus
energy, because both have been absorbed in the struggle
for life?

IV. Population and Physical Energies : A further re-
sult of the intense struggle for life is the impoverishment
of vital energies, due to a combination of conditions, such
as the heaviness of labor, low plane of living, insuffi-
ciency of nourishment, child-labor, unsanitary conditions,
et cetera. An indirect witness of this impoverishment of
vital energies is the habit of opium-smoking, which but
yesterday claimed 25,000,000' as its slaves in China.
Following an investigation, Mr. S. Merwin wrote :

While passing through an iron-smelting village, I noticed that
the black-smiths who beat up the pig iron were regular living
skeletons. They work from about five in the morning until
about five in the evening, stopping twice during that time for
meals. When they leave off in the evening after a hasty meal,
they start with their pipes and go on until they are asleep. I
do not know how these men can work. I presume that it was
the hard work that made them take to opium smoking.'

A similar picture is given in the Philippine Opium
Commission report, quoted by Professor Ross :

Absolute dullness and dreariness seem to prevail everywhere.
As these two demons drive the Caucasians to drink so they
drive the Chinese to opium. . . And the poor who have no
leisure ? They often have no food, or so little that any drug
which removes first the pangs of hunger, and later the healthy
cravings of appetite, seems a boon to them. . , . The life of
the indigent Chinese coolie is pain caused by privation.'

* Ross, op, cit, p. 141-

* Drugging A Nation, p. 63.

3 The Changing Chinese, p. 142.

40 'THE SPIRIT OF CHINESE PHILANTHROPY [40

Closely following exhaustion of vital energies must be
early senility and high mortality. There have been
various estimates regarding the death rate of adults and
infants, and the average length of life in China, but until
reliable census statistics are obtained, the matter remains
orfe of conjecture. There seems to be no doubt, how-
ever, that the average length of life in China is less than
in the prosperous nations of the West.

Regulation oi Reproduction : Having seen the results
of the equilibration of population and means of subsis-
tence, we ask: Is there not some way whereby population
and means of subsistence can be equilibrated without the
attending evils, above described? Our answer to this
question is conscious regulation of reproduction, on the
one hand, and promotion of economic prosperity of the
country, on the other.

Indirect Methods'. Spencer has made clear that the
multiplication of a race tends to decrease as we rise in
the scale of evolution,' that is, in inverse ratio to the
ascending individuation of its members. Applying
this law of multiplication, we may reasonably expect
that with the advance of civilization in China, there will
be a corresponding decrease of reproductive fertility.
Translated into the life of the masses, this law operates
through popular education. Education increases their
intelligence, which in turn multiplies their interests and
wants, and so raises their standard of living. Between
an over-numerous family and a high standard of living,
intelligence has always decided for the latter. The main-
tenance of a high standard of living and of cultural
achievements tends to delay the age of marriage, since
the preparation of life would become more laborious and

' H. Spencer, Principles of Biology.

41 ] POPULATION AND SOCIAL WELL-BEING 41

energy-absorbing. Especially effective in controlling
reproduction and in delaying the age of marriage would
be the education of girls. Education would fire them
with ambitions they have never felt before, would in-
crease their interests in the multiform activities of life,
would individualize them, and would create in them the
consciousness that they are more than mere sex crea-
tures. They would not be hopelessly dependent upon
men for their livelihood, and so would enter marriage as
a free partner of life's sacred compact rather than be
driven into it by necessity. When they have a home,
they will make it not a mere feeding and breeding place,
but a place for comfort, happiness and refinement.

Direct Methods : With this indirect method, there
should be direct and explicit education of the people
on matters pertaining to population, reproduction and
social well-being. Much can be done toward the forma-
tion of sound social standards and judgments with re-
gard to these matters through publicity agencies, such as
the newspaper, public lectures, and societies. The people
have not realized the importance of the problem of pos-
terity and the heritage that is in their power to give.
The motto should be implanted in the mind of every
adult and parent, that quality is before quantity.

Complementary to this regulation of population is the
promotion of economic prosperity, the introduction of
new industries, the development of scientific agriculture
and of natural mineral resources, the building of rail-
ways, the extension of commerce, the increase of in-
dustrial and political efficiency, and so forth, all of which
are having splendid beginnings, so that there will be
created a greater supply of economic goods at the com-
mand of the people, a greater reserve of surplus energy,
and leisure time for advancement of civilization and in-
dividuation.

CHAPTER III

CHARITY

Causes of Dependence: Dependence and destitution
are due to causes for which a person may be responsible
or not. A person suffering from the consequences of
accidents of birth, such as parental desertion, congenital
deformity, mental degeneration, is not responsible for his
misfortune because the causes are entirely beyond his
control. In the same way, perhaps in less degree, a per-
son is not responsible for the results of natural, acci-
dental and social causes of dependence, such as old age,
sickness, incapacity by accidents, unemployment and
social prejudices. By social prejudices we mean for ex-
ample such conventional habits of thought as that which
prevents a woman from seeking to support herself in
the economic world. Some causes of destitution, which
may be distinguished from the above-mentioned by be-
ing designated personal and immoral, such as laziness,
evil habits, inebriety, etc.^ are causes for which a person
is responsible. And yet, enlightened thought is coming
more and more to regard even these so-called personal
causes as dependent upon impersonal factors and con-
ditions.

The Care of the Poor : It is the expression of the sense
of social solidarity, whether conscious or unconscious,
which urges the bearing of the burden of poverty of the
few members by the community as a whole. Tradition-
ally, there are four dependent classes in China, who are
42 [42

43] CHARITY 43

recognized as the worthy poor, and for whose benefit
charity is largely instituted. They are the aged, the
orphans, the widows, and the sick. It seems that the
preference of these four classes of dependence to others
as objects of public charity and care is based upon defi-
nite social judgments. The care of the aged is motivated
not only by humanitarian ideas, but also by the cus-
tomary regard for age which is strong in the patriarchal
society of China. The care of the orphans is motivated
not only by the recognition of their helplessness, but also
by the value of children, engendered by ancestral wor-
ship. The care of widows is motivated not only by
purely chivalrous ideas but also by the social ethic which
demands that widows should neither be remarried nor
earn their living independently.

Present Stage of Charity in China ; In regard to re-
lief of the dependent classes, Chinese philanthropy has
reached the stage of systematization and institutionality,
of adequate relief, but not of scientific prevention of des-
titution. For instance, charity is ever ready to take in
its care deserted infants or foundlings, and spends much
energy in bringing them up ; but it has not sought to
correlate the social phenomenon of infant desertion with
other social phenomena, such as fecundity, as cause and
effect. Charity has sought to alleviate the sufferings of
the sick, but has not done much for the elimination of
sickness-producing conditions and causes. But the sci-
entific stage is bound to be reached, for the principle of
adequate relief must inevitably point to that goal.

I. Care of Aged Men

Attitude Toward the Aged : The attitude of a civilized
community toward its worthy aged is one of deep respect
and of readiness to assist in their need. For those who

44 THE SPIRIT OF CHINESE PHILANTHROPY [44

in their younger days have rendered public service to the
nation or community, pensions, decorations and other
honors are their reward. For the indigent aged there
are almshouses, workshops, and homes, provided by state
and private munificence. In these ways society shows
its appreciation of services rendered by individuals,
whether in the distinguished form of military and civil
duties, or in the unrecorded form of daily work in honest
pursuit of livelihood. Both forms of services benefit so-
ciety, and entitle the individuals who grow old therein
to the care of society, when that is needed for their com-
fort and happiness.

In China the aged have always received respect and
deferential treatment, for filial piety is the central feature
of ethics and religion, of the family and the state. The
providing for the comfort of the aged who are unable
to earn their living, and must depend upon the sup-
port of others, is a very ancient custom." Occidental
sojourners in China have observed that the faces of
China's old men have the most beneficent, calm and be-
nign expression, and have remarked that it is due to the
absence of worry, since the care for aged parents is
considered a sacred duty." The extremely limited eco-
nomic surplus of individuals leaves men in old age almost
entirely dependent upon the support of their children,
and were it not for this deep-rooted consciousness which
regards nourishing the aged the sacred duty of the
young, extensive suffering would have happened to most
aged people.

Public Institutions : Private support is usually spon-
taneous and generous, but public institutions are neces-

1 See chapter i.

* Cf. Ross, op. cit, p. 64.

45] CHARITY 45

sary for supplementing relief in behalf of poor families.
Public aid takes the form of home aid or institutional
care, both of the governmental and of the popular kind.

Home Aid : In home aid, the Hall of United Benev-
olence at Shanghai is doing an extensive work. Care of
the aged is one of the five principal departments of this
institution. The aged remain at their own homes, and
receive monthly 600 coins. The method of administra-
tion of this aid is to have officers of the institution recom-
mend cases of indigency, or to stand as guarantee for
genuineness of reported cases, to have the cases carefully
investigated into, and after the genuineness of a case is
ascertained, to issue a ticket in favor of the applicant.
The beneficiary must be over 60 years of age, and en-
joys his benefit during good behavior until his death.'

Home for the Aged : At Canton, Kuangtung, there is
a government old men's Home, which according to its
records kept on stone-tablets and bronze bells is of early
origin, having been organized in 1724. Two bells with-
in the precincts of the institution are dated respectively
1723 and 1724.'

The institution was described as being situated a short
distance from the East gate of the city, adjoining the
parade ground, built in rows, one story high, with plenty
of open air and space for moving about. There were in
1873, 310 inmates, five or six persons living in one room.
Besides the inmates, this institution supported partially
978 non-resident persons."

The inmates must be above 60 years of age to be ad-
mitted. An admittance fee is charged which entitles the
applicant to the privilege of having his lodging there for

' Chinese Repository, vol. xv, pp. 406 et seq.
* China Review, vol. ii, pp. 88 et seq.

46 THE SPIRIT OF CHINESE PHILANTHROPY [46

life. Each inmate receives 30 catties (40 lbs.) of rice and
330 coins per month. Every three years a suit of winter
garments is distributed to the inmates.'

The fund for maintaining the institution came from
the Commissioner of Land Tax of the province of
Kuangtung, or Liang Tau, and the two magistrates of
Canton were trustees; but the immediate management
of the institution was said to have been farmed out.'

A Monastic House for the Aged: An interesting insti-
tution for aged men was maintained by the abbot of a
monastery in Nankin in 1812 A. D., according to
Chinese Records.*

It had a comprehensive and admirable regulation.
Men were admitted above 70 years of age, provided they
were without other means of support. The capacity of
the institution was for 160, and it was said to be full all
the time. An inmate must strictly observe the institu-
tional life. Once a month they were given a day to leave
the house and visit friends outside; but their other ab-
sences could not be more than once or twice a month.

Four persons lived in one room ; and they were re-
sponsible for its cleanliness. Each person was provided
with bedding and clothing, the use of which was regu-
lated according to the seasons. In winter months, fire
for warming the feet was supplied. The inmates rose in
the morning with sunrise and retired with the nightfall.
As a precaution against fire no lamps were allowed in
the rooms.

The inmates had three meals a day of vegetarian diet,
this being in accord with monastic life. The meals were
served in a large dining hall. The superintendent struck

' China Review ^ vol. ii, pp. 88 «/ seq,
- To-i-lUf bk. iii, sec v.

47] CHARITY 47

a wooden bell, — another sign of monastic life, — and the
inmates assembled and together partook of their common
meal, and when the superintendent got through with the
meal the whole assembly was expected to rise and leave
the room. One of the regulations of the institution was
that the inmates being quite old, their food should be thor-
oughly cooked. On festival days extra food and gifts
were distributed. Besides all the necessities of life freely
distributed, each inmate was given loo coins a month as
pocket money. The kitchen fire was kept aglow at all
hours, so that hot tea could be had when needed.

The dead of the institution were buried in the cemetery
of the monastery and their names were recorded on
scrolls and remembered in religious services. For the re-
ligious worship of the inmates themselves an ancestral
hall was built, where the inmates could establish their
own family shrines and worship there.

It is natural to infer from the above description that
the life of the inmates of the institution must have been
a happy one. We could imagine of the group of build-
ings by the side of the monastic establishment in the
midst of quiet and beautiful surroundings, — as is gener-
ally the case with locations of monasteries, — possibly
nestling at the foot of some hill, surrounded by tall pines
and waving bamboos, embosomed in an atmosphere un-
disturbed by the noise and jostle of the market-places,
but filled with the notes of singing birds, with the sweet-
smelling incense that waft hither from the altars of the
gods in the temple, and with the distant chanting of the
monks in their rounds of daily exercise ; and we could
imagine the benign, calm and serene faces of the white-
haired men of seventy and more in their rooms, in the
court-yard, in the garden, conversing, reading, dreaming,
or watching the flowers, the birds, the bees, contented

48 THE SPIRIT OF CHINESE PHILANTHROPY [48

and friendly with all nature and all men, spending the
twilight of their life in peace.

II. CARE OF AGED WOMEN AND WIDOWS

Status of Woman and Civilization : The status of
woman gauges the civilization of a people. In the ad-
vanced nations of the West, man and woman have each
recognized the value of the other sex. Disabilities,
hitherto imposed upon women are being removed.
Since the beginning of the Nineteenth Century, women
have come forward abreast of men, and reclaimed one
after another their rights and privileges. They have the
right to education, not with the expectation better to
please men, as Rousseau and the i8th Century thought,
but on the ground of their own satisfaction and self-
development. They have free choice of professional
careers and self-support; even married women hold
property in their own names. They enter into marriage
out of freewill; and they have the right of initiating
divorce proceedings as men do. In advanced states,
political suffrage has been granted to them, and they are
vigorously applying their newly gained power for social
betterment. Thus, step by step, the advancement of
civilization is marked by the rise of the status of woman
in society.

Woman in Early Times : But we need not go far back
in the past to find that women were helplessly subject to
masculine rule. It was not until 1848, that the mar-
ried women of New York could hold property on their
own account and independently of their husbands.' It was
in 1 80 1, that the first divorce demanded by a woman was
granted in England.' In primitive society, woman from

' E. A. Hccker, A Short History of Women's Rights, p. 163,
» Ibid., p. 137.

49] CHARITY 49

her lack of physical strength and other disabilities of sex
was at a disadvantage in competition with man. She
required his protection, and in return she became his
slave-worker. She was a slave before the institution of
slavery, as Bebel says.* Physical superiority became
superiority in all respects.

Widowhood: Man, having assumed authority over
woman, has for ages been the dictator of what woman
should be. The status of widows is a pertinent illustra-
tion of man-made ethics. Legouve says :

In the past, this title of widow represents only the abasement
of the wife, the annihilation of all personality, slavery, con-
demnation, death. In our day, widowhood is freedom and
equality with man. In ancient times, every wife saw her
destiny so closely sealed to the lot of her husband, that though
a widow she still belonged to him. The tie that death had
broken for him, seemed to be drawn closer around her, and
the shade of the dead husband hovered over and subdued the
oriental woman, to drag her to the funeral pile ; on the Jewish
woman it imposed a second husband ; the Christian woman
it condemned to seclusion ; the feudal woman it delivered up
to the guardianship of her son ; the very law which left them
life refused them all power as mothers, all independence as
women.*

Status of Woman in China : In China, the low status
is a survival of the past, a black spot upon its civiliza-
tion which has only recently begun to be wiped away.
Not that Chinese women are naturally inferior to men,
but the imperturbable customs have deprived them
of freedom and development. Without going further
into the life of women, we will study the ideas of widow-
hoody current in China even to this day.

* Woman, Past, Present and Future,

2 Moral History of Women, bk. iv, ch. vi.

50 THE SPIRIT OF CHINESE PHILANTHROPY [50

There is a book in the Chinese language, known as the
Lives of Virtuous Wometiy written by Liu Hsian. It is a
compilation of biographies illustrating the feminine virtues
of such noted women in history as have been traditionally
esteemed. For centuries this book has been considered
the best text-book for young girls and young women
in their preparation for their life and position in society.
The first paragraph of the book quotes Confucius as say-
ing that a woman observes in her whole life a triple de-
pendence: at home, dependence upon the father; in
wedlock, dependence upon the husband ; in widowhood,
dependence upon the son, there being no time when she
is free of masculine supervision. Concerning widow-
hood, it is said that " a man has the privilege of a second
marriage, but a woman never." The book abounds in
stories exalting the virtue of perpetual widowhood. Two
examples are here given :

In the Kingdom of Liang there was a widow, who was beauti-
ful and virtuous. Since the death of her husband many a noble
suitor had come and sought her hand ; but to them all, she
turned a deaf ear. Finally the King's envoy came bearing
royal wish to marry her. The widow replied, I have learned
about a woman's virtue ; she follows one and never changes
her allegiance. If she forgets her dead and puts aside her
virtue in order to seek life and happiness for herself, how
could she be called faithful ? Thereupon the widow took a
knife and mutilated her beautiful face, saying:, Thus have I
punished myself ; I have not followed my husband on account
of the child. The King hearing of this, rewarded her with
gold, and called her the Virtuous Widow.

In Wei, a Lady Wong was married to a King Yu. He
died, and she fearing that she might be urged to remarry, on
account of her youthful age, marred her features. In her
room, there came one summer, a pair of swallows and made

51 ] CHARITY 51

their nest. Later, the male bird died ; but the female bird
would not leave the place, and formed the habit of perching:
upon the arm of Lady Wong. Lady Wong was deeply
touched by the bird's loneliness, and in order to identify it,
fastened a little bit of silk thread upon its leg. The next
summer, the same bird came to the house, but it came alone.
Thereupon, Lady Wong wrote the following: : Last summer
you lost your mate, this summer you come alone ; Htunan
fidelity must not be less than this.

Such devotion and self-sacrifice is worthy of the
highest praise and honor in the pages of history, such
noble characters are worthy of imitation by later gener-
ations. But what more wrong use of these records can
be made than as instruments to inculcate in young girls
and women self-effacement and submission to men. What
greater injustice is there than that of forcing upon widows
the limitations of perpetual sacrifice for men, without
demanding proportionate reciprocation on the part of
widowers. Then, because widows must live in seclu-
sion, it becomes necessary to provide for their mainte-
nance. In the light of the above statement, charity to
widows becomes a means whereby society cultivates
those sentiments in and conditions of women, which are
most advantageous to men only, and so is injustice to
womanhood.

Honor for Female Virtue : But we must not think that
masculine selfishness is the only motive behind charity to
widows. There is honor to women in China. The in-
numerable records in the pages of history, describing the
fidelity, the heroism, the filial piety, the nobility, and the
wisdom of women, as rulers, as mothers, as wives and as
daughters are conscions acknowledgments of the nation's
indebtedness to its women. In the same spirit, society
assiduously provides for the comfort and happiness of

52 THE SPIRIT OF CHINESE PHILANTHROPY [52

widows during life and erects in their honor memorial
arches after death.

Public Aid: Private care of aged women, as we have
seen of aged men, is spontaneous. The same filial piety
which considers the care of aged fathers a sacred duty
considers in a far greater degree care of mothers a
sacred duty. As to the widows, their families would
not willingly neglect their care, since virtuous widow-
hood is an honor to the families cherishing it. But
public aid must supplement private care on account of
the limited resourcefulness of most families, as well as of
the justice of the community participating in the re-
sponsibility for maintaining its own widows.

In every community, there can be found small soci-
eties or clubs whose object is to relieve widows either
of the community in general or of certain groups, such
as widows of scholars, widows of the laboring men, and
so forth. These organizations are usually of limited
operation. Besides them, there are incorporated char-
itable institutions, which aid widows and aged women.
Of the latter, we may mention the Widows Aid depart-
ment of the Hall of United Benevolence at Shanghai.
In 1843, it had eighty-seven women and widows under
its care ; ' in 1908, 351 persons, and in 1909 362 persons."
The women are divided into four classes: I. Widows
who have vowed perpetual widowhood ; II. Widows who
are primarily poor ; III. Aged women of the city ; IV.
Aged women of other cities. Of Class I, we found that
the average age of its 100 widows is 43 years ; but this
number is considerably raised by a few very elderly
members. The average age at which they came under

" Chinese Repository, vol. xiv, pp. 418-420.
' Annual Reports.

53] CHARITY 53

institutional care was 28 ; but the youngest was 20 and
the eldest 76. Regarding the number of years they have
received aid from the institution, one member who is
84 years old, has been receiving aid continuously for
58 years, another for 51 years, another for 49 years,
another for 44 years, two for 43 years. The average
number of years is 11.5.

In the regulations of the Hall of United Benevolence,
there is a paragraph which indicates the public honor to
women, spoken of previously:

If among the women there be any example of extraordinary
chastity or extreme distress attended with unusual circum-
stances, such as the supporting of relatives, or the supporting
of orphans, thereby maintaining the family, and if there be no
depreciatory accounts among the villagers and neighbors, then
shall a particular statement of the case be made, in order to
its being recorded, in preparation for the record of merit for
the prefecture and districts where it will be preserved, to the
honor of chastity and filial piety.^

Homes are provided for aged women and widows.
For example, the Home of Aged Women at Canton was
reported as housing 340 inmates in 1874, besides non-
residents numbering in all 1062 individuals under its
care.* Of the internal regulation of resident institutions
for women, that of the "House of Pure Widowhood,"
contained in Tb-t-lu^ is most interesting, as it shows
clearly the social customs in regard to the status and
care of widows in particular and of women in general.

House of Pure Widowhood: This institution at Soo-
chow is of the nature of a cloister. It is for young

' Report in Chinese Repository, vol. xv, p. 406.

' Grey, Walks in City of Canton, pp. 525-526; Dr. J. G. Kerr in China
Review, vol. ii, pp. 88 et seq.

> Bk. iii, sec. ii.

54 THE SPIRIT OF CHINESE PHILANTHROPY [54

widows who have taken the veil of perpetual widow-
hood. It provides quiet, seclusion, and sociability for the
inmates. It receives not only poor widows, but also
widows from well-to-do families who prefer its quiet
life to that of their own homes. Once within the walls
the inmates are supposed never to leave the institution
again, nor to see any man, not even near relatives.

To enter the House, a woman must be a widow for at
least a hundred -days. This period of time is allowed in
order that the widows may complete their funeral ser-
vices to their dead. The candidate must vow never to
marry again or to leave the House, and never to see men,
except her parents and parents-in-law at the three fes-
tival days of the year. Any violation of this vow is fol-
lowed by immediate dismissal from the House.

But the financial aid which the House gives to its in-
mates may be extended to those non-resident widows,
who desire but cannot adopt the cloistered life, either be-
cause they have their mothers-in-law at home, who in
old age need their services, or for some equally weighty
reason.

The House is built in two sections. The inner section
is the living quarters of the inmates, separated from the
outer section by a wall, with a gate guarded by two old
maids. Into this inner section no outsider is allowed to
go. The public does not know what is contained in the
outer section for the outer section is separated from the
outside world by another wall, which has a gate watched
by two old men.

To permit communication between the inmates and the
gate-keepers, who act as errand-runners, but at the same
time to obviate direct personal meeting and to avoid the
inmates being seen by outsiders, a contrivance is built in
the outer wall, consisting of a wooden box, like a dumb-

55] CHARITY 55

waiter box, which is fixed and turns upon a vertical axis,
so that a message placed in it by the inmates may be re-
ceived by the watchmen outside by a turn of the box.
This illustrates with what care seclusion of the inmates is
preserved. It reflects an ancient ceremonial law, which
goes as follows :

The men should not speak of what belongs to the inside of the
house, nor the women of what belongs to the outside. Ex-
cept at sacrifices and funeral rites, they should not hand vessels
to one another. In all other cases when they have occasion to
give and receive anything, the woman should receive it in a
basket. If she have no basket, they should both sit down,
and the other put the thing on the ground, and she then take
it up. Outside or inside, they should not go to the same

well nor to the same bathing house They should not

ask or borrow anything from one another. . . Things spoken
inside should not go out, words spoken outside should not
come in.'

The house supplies all the necessaries of life, such as
food, lodging, bedding, furniture, clothing, small sums
of money, medical care, and so forth. All these are
matters of thorough regulation. In case of death, the
remains are buried in the cemetery of the House, and the
name of the dead is inscribed upon a scroll in the temple
of the cemetery.

The children of the inmates, if any, are taken care of
by the House. Girls live with their mothers, but boys
live with their tutors. Girls are married on coming of
age at the expense of the House; should they remain
unmarried, they are treated as regular inmates. Boys
are educated in the school which is attached to the

' Li Kij tr. J. Legge, in Sacred Books of the East, ed. F. Max
Miiller, vol. xxvii, pp. 454-455-

56 THE SPIRIT OF CHINESE PHILANTHROPY [56

House, and should any show aptitude for a learned
profession, he is specially prepared for that profession,
while the rest are sent out at 14 for apprenticeship in
trades.

Concluding Remarks : Although we have no exact
knowledge of the number of widowed women in China,
both young and elderly, we believe that it is consider-
able. An interesting question to ask is whether, upon
the introduction of modern civilization into China and
the adoption of female education and the rise of the
consciousness of social justice between the sexes, the old
customs regarding widowhood in particular and the
status of women in general will survive or be mod-
ified. The question seems to admit of but one answer :
The status of women, including widowhood, will be
changed for the better. Already the traditional restric-
tions upon woman's work are being cast aside, because
of new fields opened and demanding women. Year by
year the number of young women who step out of the
family circle, hitherto the only sphere of female labor, to
teach in schools, to nurse in h6spitals, to serve as
secretaries, to work in factories, is increasing. This
social change suggests a new field wherein widows may
devote their time and energy : social service. As far as
we know, the Christian Church invented the utilization
of widows in social service. It seems to us that it is
a beneficent invention both for the widows and for so-
ciety. For social service, the widows in China may be
trained and developed ; then, instead of wasting them-
selves away, behind self-imposed walls of seclusion and
solitude, they may go forth into society, to turn their
energies of love and sympathy upon a world that sorely
needs the ministry of women.

57] CHARITY 57

III. CARE OF DEPENDENT CHILDREN

•

Desertion of Infants : There are no statistics to indicate
the extent of desertion of infants in China.' That it does
exist there, there seems to be no doubt. It seems to be
a social problem more serious in some parts of the
country than in other parts, in some years than in
others. It has been observed that infanticide and deser-
tion are more common in the southeastern provinces
than in the others, and after years of bad crops than after
years of good ones. We may say that the chief causes
of infant desertion are poverty and congestion of popu-
lation. An official proclamation issued by the provincial
authorities of Hupeh in 1873 is an illuminating docu-
ment, giving the ordinary causes of this social problem.
In part, it is as follows : '

In ancient times, the girl Ty-ying begged His Majesty Wen
to permit her to sacrifice her liberty in order that her father,
who was in official disgrace might be released from bondage.
In another case, the girl Mulan wished to serve as a soldier in
order to take upon herself the liability of her old father to
serve in the wars. These instances show with what filial in-
stincts girls of old were imbued. At the present time, we too
apprehend there is no lack of daughters equally ready to sac-
rifice themselves to their parents or to render the names of
their family as illustrious by filial acts of devotion. Such
being the case, how comes it that the female infant is looked
upon as an enemy from the moment of its birth, and no sooner
enters the world than it is consigned to the nearest pool of
water ? Certainly, there are parents, who entertain an affec-
tion for their female infants, and rear them up, but such num-
ber scarcely 20 or 30 percenium. The reasons are either
(first) that the child is thrown away in disgust because the

* For discussion, see K H. Parker, China, Past and Present.
' Grey, Walks in City of Canton, pp. 565-567.

58 THE SPIRIT OF CHINESE PHILANTHROPY [58

parents have too many children already, or (secondly) that it
is drowned from sheer chagrin at having begotten none but
females, or from the apprehension that the mother will not
conceive again readily enough if she has to suckle the child,
or lastly, in the fear that the poverty of the family will make
it difficult to devote the milk to her own child, when the
mother might otherwise hire herself out as wetnurse.

Now all these are the most stupid of reasons. People seem
to be ignorant of the fact that no men are bom from heaven
without some share of its blessings, and that hunger, cold or
bodily comfort are matters of predestination ; so also with
sons and heirs, who are even in a greater degree dependent
upon the destiny of heaven, and cannot be forcibly coaxed out
of it.

All that those have to do, who are unable, through poverty,
to feed their children, is to send them to the foundling hospital,
where they will be reared up until they become women and
wives, and where they will always be sure of enjoying a nattural
lifetime.

With regard to the question of money or no money in the
bridal casket, means or no means of bringing up a family,
why, the bare necessaries of life for such children, in the shape
of the coarsest gown and head-gear do not cost much. There
are cases enough of poor lads not being able to find wives all
their lives long but we have yet to hear of a poor girl, who
cannot find a husband, so that there is even less cause for
anxiety on that score.

But there is another way of looking at it. Heaven's retri-
bution is sure, and cases are common where repeated female
births have followed those where the infants have been
drowned, /. e,, man loves to slay what Heaven loves to beget
and those perish, who set themselves against Heaven, as those
die who take human life. Also they are haunted by the
wraiths of the murdered children and thus not only fail to
hasten the birth of a mate child but run the risk of making
victims of themselves by their behavior.

59] CHARITY 59

The real reasons why girls suffer the consequences of
poverty more than boys do are, ( i ) girls, being forbidden
by custom to be wage-earners, are a heavy liability to their
families, while boys are an asset in the economic strug-
gle; (2) girls will leave their own homes and become
members of outside homes, while boys remain members
of their own homes and hand down the family-heritage ;
(3) ancestor worship requires male officiates, and so
boys only can satisfy the religious demands of filial piety.
In short, girls are more negligible than boys, because
their social value is less than that of boys. This is a
vicious judgment, born of medieval thought, and the
social ethics of to-day demands its eradication.

Public Care of Dependent Children : Public care of
dependent children consists of partial aid for children in
poor families, and institutional care of foundlings. The
first method is always preferred, wherever possible, for it
preserves the home and the natural parental and filial
sentiments. The next preferred method in the case of
foundlings is to provide for as much home life as pos-
sible by placing them out among different homes. This
is not adoption by these homes, for the children are
still in the possession and care of the institutions placing
them out, and it becomes adoption only after due legal
transfer of right of possession from the institutions to
the homes. The last method to mention is institutional
care, where a number of foundlings live together with
wetnurses under one roof.

Home Aid : Partial home aid is undertaken by volun-
tary societies in a community. Its objects are to help
poor families bear the burden of their children, and thus
obviate breaking up homes, and to remove the necessity
of mothers working without a sufficient period of con-
valescence after child-birth. The amount of aid depends

6o THE SPIRIT OF CHINESE PHILANTHROPY [60

upon circumstances. Ordinarily monthly supplies of food
and money are given for five months after the birth of a
child. It is argued that the first five months constitute
the most trying period for poor parents to keep their in-
fants. By the end of the five months there will have de-
veloped the tie of affection between the parents and the
infants, too strong to be easily broken. In extraordinary
cases special aid is given. Such cases are : ( i ) children
upon whom the continuation of the family name depends ;
(2) children whose mothers die at their birth ; (3) children
adopted when very young by outside families. In such
cases the aid continues for three years. Societies for
protection of infants have definite areas of operation, cor-
responding to those of villages or wards of towns and so
forth. In this way local spirit or neighborhood feeling
is utilized. This point is illustrated in the following
statement, made by a founder of a local society :

In the 23rd year of Tau Kwang (1843), I discussed the matter
with residents within a radius of ten miles, urging the forma-
tion of an infants protection society to counteract the misery
of poverty. Since the formation of the society, we have
successfully prevented infant desertion within the district.
Monthly aids are given in every case of need for five months.
Each member of the society not only pays a membership
share of 360 coins a year, but also makes the promise never
to desert infants. The society has existed for ten years and
each year there were from seventy to a hundred cases taken
care of. But the moral effect of such a society is far greater
than the material aids.'

Placing'Out System : The Foundling Hospital of Shang-
hai' receives foundlings, but instead of keeping them in

1 Td'i-lu, bk. ii, sec. i, p. 13; cf. F. Hirth, Ueher getneinnutgige
Anstalten in China, p. 19.

* Report in Chinese Repository, vol. xiv, pp. 177-195.

6l] CHARITY 61

one public institution sends them out to the homes
of wetnurses for care. At the headquarters of the
institution, foundlings are received, examined and reg-
istered. The points specified in the registration are :
(i) name and date of birth, — this being known from
written information attached to the foundlings, which
parents are usually anxious to give ; (2) physical condi-
tion, such as conditions of health or disease, perfectness
or defects of the limbs, the senses, etc. ; (3) lines and
fashion of the finger marks, for identification; (4)^the
clothing in which the foundlings are received. A ticket
is next made out for each foundling, and the infant is
then assigned to a wetnurse. The placing-out system
requires vigilant inspectors of the infants placed-out
and of the wetnurses, and so the institution provides as
follows : '

One of them to take chaise of the records and registers, the
receiving of infants, the allotment of nurses, the giving out
the children's tickets, and the receiving and dispensing of
money. It is requisite that all these be recorded minutely
and carefully. The other, to make investigations, daily to
give out the things which may in turn be requisite, and taking
in his hand the infants' record, to go around to the place ap-
pointed for each; first to examine the child's ticket, then to
take cognizance of the nurse's diligence or negflect, and
whether the child be fat or thin, which is upon the spot to
be entered into the record, in readiness for the First and
Fifteenth days of the month, when the directors shall examine
and verify, and dispense praise or blame.

The choice of wetnurses, which is deemed very im-
portant is thus regulated :

1 Op. cif., p. 184.

62 THE SPIRIT OF CHINESE PHILANTHROPY [62

The most important thing in the nourishinsf of the infants is
the hiring of wetnurses. . . If there be any one who wishes to
take this function, either her own husband can come to the
office and annotuice her name, or a relative or neighbor must
come and be security for her. The officers of the Hall must
then examine whether she really is properly qualified for the
function or not, and shall then enter her name upon the re-
cord ; when infants come, they are to be distributed succes-
sively to the nurses/

Serious negligence on the part of nurses is treated as
a criminal offence.

Adoption of Foundlings : Approximately three fifths
of the foundlings live, and the rest die either when re-
ceived or afterwards. Of the living, three fourths ulti-
mately are adopted into homes, and one fourth remain
under institutional care. Concerning adoption, the in-
stitution provides as follows :

In the transfer of children, it is only requisite with regard to
the boys that they legitimatize into some family ; beyond this
there is no further need for anxiety. But as regards the
girls, there is great fear of their being bought as concubines,
or bought and sold again with other similar abuses.'

Hence adoptions must be accompanied by sufficient
guarantee of good faith and done through legal form :

The tickets or documents for the adopted children shall be
drawn out in duplicate. The one shall be the bond for the
receiving of the child, which shall be laid by in the institution,
and the other the agreement of the transfer, which shall be
given to the family adopting the child. These shall be
stamped with the official seal of the Sub-prefect.'

Concerning the disposal of those who are not adopted

> op. ciL, p. 185. • Ibid., p. 187. * Ibid,, p. i9S,

63] CHARITY 63

by families, our information is limited to a general rule,
which runs as follows :

When a child has reached the ag:e of three years, it is then
able to eat and drink, to run and walk by itself and if, as
hitherto, it is unadopted by any one, the said child shall re-
ceive a ticket, and be a^^ain taken into the institution, where
there shall be hired nurses to take chargfe thereof/

Administration : From the history of the institution,
it seems that the officers were originally elected by the
subscribers, and approved or authorized by the civil
officers. Those persons were elected, who had shown
themselves most energetic promotors or were most able
financially to be promoters of the interests of the institu-
tion. These were positions of trust and honor. As the
business of the institution became exacting and vol-
uminous, executive officers were selected who could
give entire time to the work, while the honorary
officers became the directors and examiners of the re-
cords of the institution. The directorate seems to be
self-perpetuating. The honorary offices descend from
father to son, and from friend to friend of one's own
choice. This policy seems to have been adopted on
account of its practical advantages. It insures the
continuity of the institution and promotes its efficiency,
since neither sons nor friends would willingly abuse the
honor and trust by neglecting the responsibilties of the
offices. There are recorded cases in which sons unable
to receive the offices that had descended from their
fathers, were relieved of their responsibilities.*

Finances: The efficiency of management of philan-
thropic institutions may be illustrated in the methods

1 Op. cit, p. 187. * Ibid., pp. 180-182.

64 THE SPIRIT OF CHINESE PHILANTHROPY [64

used for raising money. One of the commonest methods
is known as the benevolent ticket :

It is now decided that one benevolent ticket shall be valued
equal to 360 coins, and that these shall be collected according
to the four seasons. One person may write several tickets, or
several individuals may join together for one ticket, oc all the
members of a household, both the family and domestics, may
subscribe to a corresponding number of tickets, or may call
and invite friends and relations to join in any number of
tickets. . . . According to the seasons, the tickets shall be
taken and the money called for, the period of three years com-
pleting the term.^

The tickets are authorized by the civil officials, and
are of the following form : *

Having received the sub-prefect's order to take charge of the
Foundling Hospital, we have agreed to raise a subscription,
and now beg to request you (naming the person) dwelling at
(place of residence) for a voluntary subscription of (number
of) tickets, the aggregate amount of which will be (amount
in coins). Year, date.

Accompanying the invitation to subscribe is an essay of
moral persuasion, of the following nature :

If, for the extension of kindness to our fellow-creatures and
to those poor and destitute who have no father and mother,
all the good and benevolent would give one coin, it would be
sufficient for the maintenance of the foundlings one day. Let
no one consider a small good unmeritorious nor a small sub-
scription of no avail. Either you may induce others to sub-
scribe by the vernal breeze from your mouth or you may your-
self nourish the blade of benevolence in the field of happiness,
or cherish the already sprouting bud. Thus, by taking your

1 Op. ciu p. 190. ■ Ibid., p. 191.

65] CHARITY 65

endeavors to accomplish your object, you may immeasurably
benefit and extend the institution.*

The merit of the ' benevolent ticket ' system is that it
puts the participation in philanthropy within the capacity
of the ordinary people, who have little surplus to spare,
while at the same time it places no limit to the gener-
osity of the more capable. It democratizes philanthropy.
Thus, during one year, 4586 tickets were subscribed by
1272 persons, of whom the 26 largest subscribers took
half of the number of tickets, and the remaining 1246
persons the other half."

Slale Encouragement: Realizing the value of philan-
thropic institutions, the Government of China is in the
habit of encouraging their efforts by public recognition
of their services and by awards. The following is an
example : 3

Yung-ching, 2nd year, 4th Intercalary month, 28th day. The
following edict was issued to the Prefect and Sub-prefect offi-
cers of Shun-tien Fu:

Outside the Kwang-ning gate of the capital there has here-
tofore been the Pu-Tsai-Tang, or Hall of Universal Benevo-
lence, where all aged, diseased and destitute persons might find
an asylum. Those who had the control of the work, invariably
delighting in virtue, well merited commendation, and His Maj-
esty Kang Hsi gave them an inscribed tablet in order to lead
onwards the love of virtue. You who have the official charge
of the place, ought also constantly to give them commendation
advice in order to stimulate and excite them. . . .

And we have heard that within the Kwang-kin gate there is
a foundling hospital, where all those infants and children, who
cannot be nourished and bought up are received during a
course of ten years; it has reared and settled many. The

1 Op. cit, p. 191. ' Ibid,, p. 192. » Ibid., p. 177-

66 THE SPIRIT OF CHINESE PHILANTHROPY [66

nourishment of the young and the maintaining of orphans
being an exaltation of virtue of a similar nature with the sup-
porting of the infirm, and compassionating of the aged, and a
thing which in common practice of the world is difficult, we
both praising and delighting in it, have especially granted a
door- tablet and also make a gift of money, in order to manifest
our own inclinations and to commend and lead the way in
pecuniary aid to its support by our people. . . .

Institutional Care : As an illustration of institutional
care where the dependent children are housed in one
place we may describe the Foundling Hospital at Can-
ton.' As this is a state institution light will be thrown
upon others of its kind at the same time.

The institution was described as being situated a short
distance from the city of Canton, built upon somewhat
elevated and rolling grounds. The buildings were one
story high and arranged in rows with alleys between,
opening into a central street. Each row of rooms was
supervised by a woman overseer. The whole group of
buildings was surrounded by a wall. At one time it was
said to have employed 980 wetnurses, of whom 200 re-
sided in the institution, and the rest were non-resident.
About ten or twelve infants were received every day.
To dispose of its charges, the institution would daily ex-
hibit the children for the inspection of persons who
wished to adopt them. The adoption fee would be di-
vided among the wetnurses and the other servants of the
institution. The institution derived its funds from the
provincial treasury, and was under state supervision and
management.

Modem Methods: In recent years modern methods
have been introduced into Chinese philanthropy. Of

* Dr. J. G. Kerr, " Native Benevolent Institutions of Canton," in
China Review, vol. ii, pp. 89-91.

67] CHARITY 67

the newer type of institutions, the Home for Orphans
at Shanghai is an example. It has been in existence
for about ten years, and has recently moved into its
new home in a suburban village. It receives boys
and girls of all ages up to 16 years, and is equipped with
farms, orchards, school-rooms, workshops and play-
grounds. It teaches the boys farming, horticulture,
fruit-raising, care of trees, carpentry, furniture-making,
printing, photography, and other manual trades, and the
girls, machine-sewing, tailoring, embroidery, laundry,
music, kindergarten work, and so forth. At the time of
its last report there were ninety-nine boys from five to
nineteen years of age, and thirty-seven girls from six to
sixteen years of age. It has an enlightened aim, to make
out of the children men and women independent and
useful in society.'

IV. CARE OF THE DESTITUTE SICK

Public Health : The presence of sickness in a com-
munity can generally be accounted for by the unsanitary
condition of life, overtaxation of physical energies, and
lack of proper medication. For the individual, an added
factor exists, that is, the chance of communication. For
the eradication of sickness, therefore, prevention by the
improvement of sanitation and restoration of life-energy
is more important than mere medicinal remedy; and
social effort rather than individual effort alone is power-
ful enough to accomplish it. But prevention depends
upon scientific knowledge of the causal relation of sani-
tation and health, and of the origin, communication and
cure of diseases. The impetus behind sanitary move-
ments and preventive measures, which obtains to-day jn

' Report of Home for Orphan^ 191a

68 T-Z/E SPIRIT OF CHINESE PHILANTHROPY [68

Occidental nations is largely based upon this scientific
knowledge, and the seeming apathy toward sanitation
and toward diseases in the past is largely a reflection
of helpfulness on the part of society to cope with them,
the lack of confidence of conquering them due to ignor-
ance of their causation, communication and cure.

Public Responsibility : In China, social responsibility of
public health is sufficiency recognized but the importance
of sanitation is inadequately realized because there is lack
of scientific knowledge on the matter. The consciousness
of social responsibility for health is shown in the existence
of public hospitals for the care of the destitute sick, the
distribution of medicine to the poor, public aid in the
event of deaths of the needy. To the poor and the
laboring class, sickness, unless temporary, is ruinous.
They lack the means to command efficient medical treat-
ment, they lose their time and health which are their
most valuable possessions. A prolonged sickness may
cause unemployment or neglect of the fields and plunge
them into destitution. Thus, the directors of a public
dispensary at Shanghai, after speaking of the sickness-
begetting conditions of the fields in which the laboring
men have to work in the summer and the unhealthy
conditions in which they usually live said in a report :

The well-to-do get their own doctors, but if the laboring and
the poor be exposed to pernicious influences and become
sick, they are unable to procure medical aid, and their diseases
speedily become severe. This state of things having come to
the knowledge of several benevolent individuals has excited
their compassion and sympathy. . . . Now it is more meritor-
ious and praiseworthy to attend to persons while they are alive
than to afford cofiins for them when they are dead. ... *

1 Report of the Public Dispensary, in Chinese Repository, vol. xvii,
pp. 193-199.

69] CHARITY 69

The free Dispensary: The public dispensary is the
common form of relief. It is open daily or on appointed
days, throughout the year or for appointed seasons. It
is supported by voluntary contributions. Those dispen-
saries which are open for appointed days and seasons are
generally able to obtain the voluntary services of the
doctors while those requiring resident doctors, have to
pay for their services. A subscription appeal sent out
by a Public Dispensary at Shanghai furnishes some in-
formation about its work :

We respectfully notify the subscribers (that the public dis-
pensary is attached to the Hall of United Benevolence,
that it was open for three months during the last summer,
that for each appointed day, it treated more than a thousand
patients, that it is entirely dependent upon voluntary sub-
scriptions, that for the present year's work it is again appeal-
ing to the merchants and scholars who delight in the works
of charity). We respectfully request the lovers of virtue and
promoters of benevolence to open their purses and afford
relief to the sick poor and by accumulating grains of sand we
shall form a pyramid. Thus whitened bones will be clothed
with flesh and the well-nigh dead restored to life, the sick
will be healed and immeasurable happiness diffused abroad.^

Sick Asylums: There are asylums where stranger
who have fallen ill are sheltered. Admittance is free,
but the asylum is legally free from responsibility for the
inmates whatever should happen. For this purpose, a
written agreement is made by the person who sends the
inmate to the asylum, as follows :

We, the undersigned, having discovered at of the

city a stranger, who is sick and destitute, on the day of

the month, and having ascertained him to be a native of ,

1 Op. cit., p. 197.

70 THE SPIRIT OF CHINESE PHILANTHROPY [70

aged . . . . , without relations in this city, and having received
the permit of the magistrate, send the person to you to be
cared for. We fill this blank and promise to take the person
away, should he get well, so that the Asylum may not be held
. responsible. ^

Isolation of the Diseased : Persons suffering from con-
tagious diseases, so far as known, are isolated. This is
the case with leprosy in the southern part of China.
Lepers live in colonies by themselves.* But isolation is
not absolute. For example, in the colony, the inmates
are allowed to marry and beget children. By reproduc-
tion the colony eventually becomes a centre of popula-
tion, and so an economic unit, and as such could hardly
be completely isolated with the rest of the economic
world. Thus it is said that the members of the colony
made ropes, twine, sandals and other articles of daily
use and offered them for sale in the cities, in order to
make a living and feed the children. We do not know
whether leprosy is an inheritable disease, but it is an
obnoxious idea to think that lepers should be allowed
to reproduce themselves, and thus perpetuate the colony.
But the description applies to the situation forty years
ago. Conditions may have changed.

Cave of the Defective : As regards persons suffering
congenital defects, such as the blind, the deaf, the dumb,
the feeble-minded, the insane, and so forth, it seems that
very little is done for them through public institutions.
There are here and there institutions that receive them
and give them a bare living, and there are workhouses,
where they are engaged in profitable industries.^ Ac-

^ Record of the Asylum for Strangers, Shanghai, in To-v-Im, bk.
iv, sec. vi.

• Grey, Walks in the City of Canton, pp, 68S-691.

• Ibid., p. 523.

71 ] CHARITY yi

cording to an Occidental observer, the probable reason
of inaction is that the Chinese labor under an impression
that all blind persons have either in the present, or in a
former state of existence committed sins of heinous
nature, and for which by the deprivation of sight they
are undergoing a well merited punishment/ Hence the
lack of sympathy for their sufferings. There is, perhaps,
some such mythological thinking in the minds of some
people when they meet a blind man deprived of his sight,
or a lame man limping with crutches, or a dumb person
manipulating his fingers, or a mental defective acting in
a silly manner, or an insane person raving as if possessed
of the devil. But we believe that there is a more funda-
mental reason to account for the apathy toward these
unfortunate classes, than mere superstition.

It is ignorance. It is ignorance of what to do with the
blind, the deaf, the dumb, and the insane that discourages
charitable activity on their behalf. For a normal person
in distress, there is hope and reasonable expectancy that
some day a self-respecting, independent and desirable
person will be made by environmental aid. This hope
prompts charitable activity. Abnormal persons, whether
defective in outer limbs or inner organs are thought to
be hopeless cases, and so little is done for them.

The remedy for this apparent but not real apathy to-
ward these unfortunate classes of abnormal and defective
persons is to be sought in the introduction of scientific
knowledge concerning them, their treatment and care.
On the one hand, society needs to know that many con-
genital and mental defects are inheritable and constitute
real degeneration of the racial stock. The earlier they
are eliminated the better for the race ; and the elimina-

iGrey, op, cit., p. 523.

72 THE SPIRIT OF CHINESE PHILANTHROPY [72

tion may be accomplished with kindness to the unfor-
tunate persons, and without hurting the moral sensibility
of society. On the other hand, society needs to be in-
formed that the care of the defectives is far from being a
hopeless work. By special methods of training and
supervision they may be made to earn their own living,
and so reduce the burden of care upon the community,
and may be given a happier and fuller life than their
handicaps would otherwise have allowed them to enjoy.

Free Burial : Closely allied with the care of the des-
titute sick is the free burial of the poor and the distribu-
tion of free cofBns. It is a very active form of charity.
The Hall of United Benevolence in the twelve months of
1908 distributed 578 cofBns for adults and 867 coffins for
children, and at a branch office in the same city, 631
coffins for adults and 158 coffins for children. In its free
cemetery it buried during the same twelve months 1506
adults and 3796 children.* There may be various reasons
to account for this activity, such as religious awe of
death, superstition concerning the repose of the spirits
of the dead, and other mythological reasons, but the
proximate reason is the practical necessity for the work.

Need of a National Health Campaign : A much-needed
campaign in China is for sanitation and positive pursuit
of health. To show what powerful social effort is avail-
able in China, we need only cite the present crusade
against opium-smoking. Thus, Professor Ross writes,

When Pekin allowed ten years for the cleansing of the land
from the opium habit, it little dreamed of the enthusiastic re-
sponse its initiative would call forth or of the rising spirit of
patriotism that would come to its aid. The accomplishment
of the last five years elapsed has surpassed all anticipations.

* Report of the Hall, 1909.

73] CHARITY 73

The production of opium in China has certainly been cut down
sixty or seventy per cent, and the reform leaders even insist
on eighty per cent. Millions of smokers are breaking off be-
cause the price of the drug has risen clear out of their reach.

A national conscience is banning to show itself and the
slave of the pipe is put to the blush. It is now worth while
to make the smoker carry his purchased opium in his open
hand and wear his permit on a big wooden tablet that he can-
not conceal. No one has a greater horror of " losing face "
than the Chinese, and there is hope that the rising generation
will shrink from opium as they shrink from a Cobra. *

The virility of the opium crusade is clearly due to pub-
licity given to the matter, exposure of the evils, and the
consequent formation of a sound constructive public
opinion and aggressive policy. The agitation for sani-
tation and health will be equally virile, given similar con-
ditions.

I'Ross, The Changing Chinese, pp. 169, 171.

CHAPTER IV.

MUTUAL BENEFIT

Mutual Benefit and Social Consciousness: Mutual
benefit is an essential factor in Chinese philanthropy.
There is a readiness among the people to combine in
in order better to relieve one another's burdens in distress,
a tendency to co-operate in dealing with want and mis-
fortune and other adverse conditions, which constitutes
a distinct social habit. Undoubtedly the tendency to
co-operate in philanthropic undertakings is re-inforced
by the habits of co-operation engendered in economic
activities, such as the trades guild, and by consciousness
of kind developed within particular groups, such as the
clan or community. Thus men of the same clan or
community more readily enter into association for
mutual benefit than men of different clans or com-
munities, and in the same way, members of the same
trade more readily enter into association for mutal bene-
fit than members of different trades. In other words,
mutual benefit in philanthropy is an expression of social
consciousness, and the degree and extent of the former
is determined by the intensity and extent of the latter.
If we conceive of social consciousness within a society
as unevenly distributed and concentrating around num-
erous points which represent the numerous interests
and objects for which people associate themselves, and if
we conceive of it as ever tending to spread outward
from these points, through friendly social interaction and
74 [74

75] MUTUAL BENEFIT 75

co-ordination among the different minor social groups
and interests until it permeates society generally, then
we can think of mutual benefit as at first limited within
definite areas such as the clan, the village, the particular
trade-guild, and so forth, but as finally overflowing the
limitations, and spreading throughout the nation.

Value of Mutuality : The value of mutuality in philan-
thropy cannot be overestimated. It alone may not be a
sufficient agent in the elimination of distress and want,
but it is a constructive agent because it recognizes the
principle of justice, and utilizes the consciousness of
social solidarity. Although it is a corporate functioning,
mutual benefit cannot swamp individual responsibility.
Although it is a charity, it does not compromise personal
dignity; and although it is giving of aid, it does not
pauperize the receiver.

To study this important phase of Chinese philanthropy,
we will examine its clearest expressions in the clan
organization, in the village community, in the voluntary
associations for mutual benefit, and in the trades and
crafts guilds.

I. The Clan Organization

What it is : The clan is a consanguinity group, ob-
serving patronymic descent. The families of the clan
acknowledge a common male ancestor or ancestors,
whether real or adopted, and are thereby held together
and known by the common family name. Genealogical
records are carefully kept in order both to substantiate
claims of clan privileges, and to regulate the degree of
kinship.

Clans send out off- shoots in the manner of trees. The
larger branches trace their origin to the trunks, and the
smaller branches trace their origin to the larger branches

76 THE SPIRIT OF CHINESE PHILANTHROPY [76

and only indirectly to the main trunks. But the ambition
of a clan is to trace its ancestral line as far back as pos-
sible, terminating it in some well-known personage in his-
tory, and to locate its original home, to which it may
look back with pride.

Localization : A clan tends to localize, that is, to
strike root in the ground which it occupies. The local-
ization is initiated by acquirement of estate. Time
strengthens the bondage to the locality through burial
of the dead, presence of ancestral tombs, establishment
of ancestral halls, maintenance of ancestral worship, iden-
tification of economic interest with the locality, and the
weight of tradition.

As conditions are more favorable for these achieve-
ments in rural than in urban districts, — e. g., a rural dis-
trict offers greater possibility for complete identification
of economic interest with locality than an urban dis-
trict, — and as the relatively unchanging conditions of a
rural district offer less disturbance to the process of
localization than the relatively changing conditions of
an urban district, we find clans better localized in the
rural than in the urban districts. Localization is con-
ducive to complete organization, and so we find clans re-
tain their solidarity as long as they remain in rural dis-
tricts, but begin to disintegrate when subjected to urban
influences. But a clan organization seldom disintegrates
completely as long as there are living members. It is
kept up by the establishment of a rural home, where the
ancestral hall is built, and clan burial ground laid out. To
this home members return for reunions, usually on special
occasions for worship of ancestors.

The Social Value of Clan Organization : Whatever
the intrinsic value of a clan organization, we find it ren-
dering distinct services for social well-being in China,
owing to the presence of peculiar political conditions.

yy-] MUTUAL BENEFIT yy

One such service is the maintenance of law and order
in the country. The political government of China
hitherto has been generally weak and unaggressive in
the maintenance of law and order in the land, and were
it not for the completeness of the organization of the
people into clans, there would have existed conditions
different from those that have hitherto existed in the
country. The traditional law-abiding nature of the
people, despite the apparent absence of governmental
machinery, is explained by clan solidarity, working itself
out in a system of legal responsibility of members of a
family for one another.

Another service, which the clan renders is its pro-
motion of co-operative spirit in social life. The clan
trains the members to think of personal welfare in terms
of social welfare, and inculcates in them the consciousness
of social responsibility. The training may be narrow,
but it is thorough ; and in the absence of social training
through national functioning, as has been the case in
China until recently, the clan mode of life has been the
only sphere which offered preparation for true social life,
by the formulation of social habits and ideals.

There is some disadvantage to the nation in clan or-
ganization for its tendency to produce a narrow spirit of
clannishness, which may prevent the development of
national consciousness, and so weaken national solidarity.
But this influence is much exaggerated. In the first
place, clans have never been so completely isolated as
to produce excessive intolerance. Trades and industries
draw men from different clans, and so tend to counteract
exclusiveness, by the creation of new bonds through eco-
nomic interest. Urban conditions have created common
civic interests among inhabitants, without regard to clan
affiliations, thus tending to neutralize clannishness. The

78 THE SPIRIT OF CHINESE PHILANTHROPY [78

innate business instinct of the people has caused the mem-
bers of different provinces and cities to travel widely and
to settle in strange provinces and cities. This extends
sympathies, and wears off provincialism. The system of
Imperial literary examinations which were held until
recently at regular and frequent intervals, at impor-
tant provincial and national centers, brought together
scholars from widely separated localities, and their com-
mon profession easily facilitated intercourse and exchange
of ideas, and thus helped to create nation-wide sympathies
and consciousness. Further, we may say that whatever
clannishness and provincialism there has been in China
may be as much due to geographical isolation and ab-
sence of easy communication between different parts,
and to the immediate consequence of diversification of
dialects and customs, as to the clan organization itself,
and perhaps more due to the former than the latter.

Clan Charities : A clan possesses an estate in common.
Because the estate is common property it is inalienable.
It may have been handed down from sonie generous an*
cestor, or acquired by public subscription. It consists
usually of grain-producing land; the rentals and grains
produced therefrom are for the support of public interests,
such as the maintenance of the ancestral hall and wor-
ship. Further, the common property serves as a store
of wealth which in time of bad years is distributed or
loaned to families to relieve them from want, and may
also be used during ordinary times to help unfortunate
members, widows, and poor scholars. We have the his-
toric record of a case of clan charities, that of the Van
Clan, which dates back as far as 1064, and presumably sur-
vives to this day. Such continuity through long periods is
not uncommon, as clan records are carefully kept and
relationships religiously maintained. We recall the sur-

79] MUTUAL BENEFIT 79

vival of the clan of Confucius to this day, without break
through 75 generations, that cover a period of 2462
years/ the larger part of which is still residing around
the original home ; and we also recall the survival of the
clan of Mencius, originating with Mencius, in 372 B. C.
The Van Clan Estate : * The records show that there
was an ancestor of the Van Clan, who purchased 1000 mow
of land (about 210 acres) in order to feed his own folks.
This man's father had worked toward this end but it was
the son who realized the plan and secured state recogni-
tion for the establishment of his estate. This was in
1064. Regulations were drawn up for the administration
of the estate; but further additions and changes were
frequently made as years went by, owing to the increase
of the clan population. Thus there is on record this
statement :

According to ancient custom, distribution of rice was equal,
with extra gifts for marriages, education of children and Im-
perial literary examination. Later, there was reduction of
land, increase of taxation and large growth in the number of
descendants. For each individual in the beginning, there are
30 individuals now. Hence per-capita distributions have to be
reduced, and the extra gifts discontinued. Other causes for
the addition and change of regulations are the variations in
the profits from the estate, and the changes of abode of the
clan population.

The Van Clan estate consisted of farm lands, farming
implements, a granary, and some living houses. The
lands were rented to farmers, who retained a fixed per-
centage of the annual produce and returned the rest to
the estate. The farmers were given the use of the public

* E. H. Parker, Studies in Chinese Religion, p. 176.
. 2 To-i-lUy bk. i, sec. i.

8o THE SPIRIT OF CHINESE PHILANTHROPY [80

implements of cultivation. The produce, largely con-
sisting of grain, was stored in the public granary. The
houses were rented to farmers at moderate rates, and in
the case of poor families, rental was free. For the repair
of these houses, whenever necessary, the families occu-
pying them were held responsible, unless they were poor.
No destruction or alienation of public property was per-
missible.

Objects : The objects of having the clan estate were to
relieve the clan-members from poverty and destitution,
to encourage the education of the young, to reward vir-
tue, such as filial piety and virtuous widowhood, and to
maintain the solidarity of the clan, comprising both the
dead and the living.

AdministraHon : The first administration was ap-
pointed by the founder of the estate. Whether this ab-
ministration became self-perpetuating, or whether it was
coincident with eldership in the clan or with a part of it,
so that there would be no doubt as to who should have
the control of the administration in succeding genera-
tions, we are not informed. In all probability the latter
was the actual arrangement, judging from consensus of
custom.

The officers of administration seem to have held their
offices subject to the approval of the clan. A rule of
1083 provided that they could be impeached in case of
suspected abuse of authority or dishonesty; and a rule
of 1095 provided that this impeachment should go
through legal channels, with its entire technique, such
as evidence, witnesses, etc. Nevertheless, while in office,
the administration exercised absolute power, with which
even the right of eldership could not interfere; and the
personal right of officers, even under impeachment, could
not be reduced in any way. These rules indicate recog-

8 1 ] MUTUAL BENEFIT gl

nition of the personal immunity of officers, the unlimited
character of delegated powers, and the responsibility of
the administration to the clan. On the other hand, if
the administration showed good management, through
the annual and semi-annual reports, the officers were
rewarded with gifts of rice. Public business meetings
were called at the Spring and Autumnal sacrifice.

Distribution of Aid: Regular distribution according to
the earliest rules (1050) consisted of rice and cloth for
every individual in the clan. An adult received a quart
of rice per day and a roll of cloth every year. The head
of each family submitted a monthly estimate of its
proper share to the managers of the estate, who after
verifying it would give the desired amount. Of the
minors, the absentees and the servants, there were special
rules. A rule of 1050 stated that a child over five years
of age should receive an adult's share of rice, but that be-
tween the ages of five an ten his share of cloth should be
half that of an adult. A servant above the age of fifty,
having to support children at home under 16, was to
receive a full share. One full share of rice was also al-
lowed for each family for the care of its other domestics.

The rules of 1095 provided that a person not resident
within the locality could receive no grants, but one re-
turning home before the fifth day of the month was to
receive his share (1098). For the support of servants
and slaves, no matter how many there might be in a
family, no more than five shares were to be given ; but
bachelors could not claim any shares for servants.

In 1098 the age limit for children was taken away, and
any child, two months after birth, could be registered
together with his mother's name and be counted as a
member of the family.

In 1689 it was provided that children should receive

82 THE SPIRIT OF CHINESE PHILANTHROPY [82

an adult share only after reaching the age of an adult —
t. e., sixteen. At this age a boy would be brought to
the ancestral temple accompanied by his father, elder
brother, and elders of the immediate family, and there
he would be initiated into full membership in the clan.
This always took place at the spring or autumnal sac-
rifices.

Special Grants : Certain persons in the clan received
special grants under certain conditions. They were :
students pursuing or preparing for a literary career,
aged persons, and widows.

Young men inclined toward a literary career, and
thus on the road to governmental preferment and Im-
perial honors, were greatly encouraged in their prepara-
tion, because their preferment and honors would reflect
glory upon the clan which produced them. The rules of
1073 made several provisions for the scholars attending
the Imperial examinations, and those engaged in the
teaching professions. The rules of 1689, amplified these
rules and arranged gifts in grades according to the
literary progress of the scholars. Those who did not
need gifts were permitted to refuse them in favor of
the more needy.

Persons over sixty years of age, according to the
rules of 1689, were given an extra share of support; over
seventy, two extra shares ; at eighty, three extra shares ;
at ninety, four extra shares ; and if without descendants,
an added share. The total number of shares for a per-
son could not exceed five. This provision shows the
reverence for age which is in full accordance with the
mores of patriarchal society.

A widow having passed her third year in widowhood
was registered and received on her own account a full
share of support. At the fifth year of her widowhood

83] MUTUAL BENEFIT 83

she received an extra share; at the tenth, two extra
shares ; at the fifteenth, three extra shares ; at the twent-
ieth, four extra shares. Beyond this there was no in-
crease. Upon remarriage support was withdrawn.

For special occasions, such as funerals and marriages,
families were assisted by the clan estate.

Conclusion: The custom is not uncommon for per-
sons of much wealth to devote their benevolences to their
clans, in the distribution of goods or in the founding
of useful institutions, such as schools, or in the con-
struction of public works, such as roads and bridges.
But an extensive system such as that of the Van Clan is
rare. A commoner system is one in which mutual bene-
fit operates more directly. The Clan store consists
of voluntary contributions of grain from individual
farmers during harvest seasons, and* is used for the
relief of distress in poor years. Such a system is both
prevalent and ancient; Chu-tse, the great editor of
the Confucian Classics, was said to have founded one for
his home town in 1181 (Sung dynasty).'

II. THE VILLAGE COMMUNITY

Local spirit: We have considered the operation of

, mutual benefit, based upon the clan, or consanguinity ;

we will now consider its operation based on local spirit.

We may regard clan consciousness, i. ^., consciousness
of kind based upon consanguinity, as the simplest express-
ion of what we know as social consciousness in its
broadest meaning. It js the simplest because it is ele-
mentary and primary ; it appeared earliest in social evolu-
tion, and has always been an important element in the later
development of social consciousness. The next simplest
expression of social consciousness is what we may call

* Td'i-lu, bk. V sec. L

84 THE SPIRIT OF CHINESE PHILANTHROPY [84

'Mocal spirit" or localism. It is an attachment to a
locality primarily, and secondarily attachment of mem-
bers of the locality to one another.

We have already referred to the tendency of clans to
localize. But in the complexities of migration localities
become settled by families of more than one clan,
and finally by many families representing many clans,
perhaps with no single clan numerically preponderant.
A fair-sized village is of this description. In such a vil-
lage community, the members are conscious of an attach-
ment for the place, created and strengthened perhaps
by generations of residence, by associations of childhood,
and by identification of economic interests. The occu-
pation of a common locality becomes a basis upon which
the members build their social intercourse. Solidarity
may be strengthened by intermarriage among the differ-
ent clans, by division of labor in local industries and by
the recognition of community interests, which are sym-
bolized in the worship of local deities.

The Village Government : The village is a self-govern-
ing group, although it is politically under the district
magistrate, who has jurisdiction over all the villages
within his district. In self-government and in its rela-
tion to the political organization of the country, the vil-
lage has been said to resemble the early New England
communities, with their town-meeting government."
The headmen of the village are elected by the members
of the village, and have delegated powers to control its
affairs and to promote its interests. Their services may
or may not be paid for," and they remain in office during
good behavior. Their public duties consist in the main-

^ Morse, Trade and Administration of the Chinese Empire, p. 47.
> Williams^ Middle Kingdom, vol. i, p. 482.

85] MUTUAL BENEFIT 85

tenance of roads, supervision of fairs, building and up-
keep of public edifices, sinking of wells, engagement of
theatrical companies, policing of the place, eic.^

In the cultural, economic and industrial life of the vil-
lage, co-operation is expressed prominently in the con-
duct of markets and fairs, in the communal ''village
hunts," in the associations for the watching and gather-
ing of crops, in the communal education of the young,
and in public maintenance of religious worship and the-
atricals.'

Village Charities: For charitable purposes there are
local societies for the care of foundlings, poor families
and their children,^ mutual loan associations, and mutual
providential associations.

Mutual Loan Societies : Of the reason for the forma-
tion of mutual loan societies, Smith says :

Every Chinese has constant occasion to use money in sums
which it is very difficult for him to command. The rate of
interest is always so high that a man who is compelled to
borrow a considerable amount, upon which he must pay in-
terest at two and a half, three, or even four per cent a month,
will not improbably be swamped by the endeavor to keep up
with his creditors. ... By distributing the payments over a
long period, and by the introduction of an element of friend-
ship into a merely commercial transaction, the Chinese is able
to achieve the happy result of uniting business with pleasure.*

Concerning the operation of these mutual loan socie-
ties, the following description contains the essential ele-
ments :

* Smith, Village Life in China, p. 227,

* Smith, ibid., passim,

* Sec Chapter III, Charity.

* Smith, op. cit, p. 152.

86 THE SPIRIT OF CHINESE PHILANTHROPY [86

The simplest of the many plans, by which mutual loans are
effected is the contribution of a definite sum by each member
of the society in rotation to some other one of their number.
When all the rest have paid their assessment to the last man
on the list, each one will have received back all that he put in,
and no more. . . . The man who is in most need of money in-
vites certain of his friends to co-operate with him, and in turn
to invite certain of their friends to do the same. When the
requisite number has been secured, the members assemble and
fix the order in which they each shall have the use of the
common fund. This would probably be decided by lot. Un-
less the amount in question is a very trifling one, every meet-
ing of the members for business purposes will be accompanied
by a feast attended by all the partners, and paid for either by
the one for whose benefit the association was organized, or by
the person whose turn it is to use the commcwi fund.^

Various other elements enter into these mutual loan
transactions, such as the pa3rment of interest for the use
of the common funds ; and the size of the membership
in the society and. the period of its existence are quite
variable.

Mutual Providential Associations : Families and indi-
viduals of moderate means provide for special drains
upon their resources occasioned by such events as wed-
dings and funerals by co-operation. Societies for such
purposes follow the model of mutual loan societies, with
special memberships, i. ^., those who have either the
family functions above mentioned on hand, or expect their
occurrence in the near future with reasonable certainty.*

Mutual providential associations usually operate with
the least display of commercialism. The following regula-
tion of a society for funerals is an illustration. It pro-
vides for a membership of 32, divided into four depart-

* Smith, ihxd., p. 153. * Ihxd.y pp. 189-igo.

87] MUTUAL BENEFIT 87

ments, presumably corresponding to the residences of
the members, east, west, north and south. Each de-
partment has an elected head, through whom business is
transacted. In case a death occurs in the home of any
member of the society, the four departments contribute

ft

money voluntarily and forward it to the bereaved family
through the four departmental heads. The family is not
expected to make any formal acknowledgment. The
members attend the funeral and assist in its arrange-
ments.'

III. Provincial and District Clubs'

The Basts of Association : In large trading cities and
towns of China there are always present more or less
people from distant cities, who have come for trade,
travel, and sometimes for fulfilling official appoint-
ments. These people, while mixing freely with the na-
tives of the place, are inclined to segregate into separate
groups according to their several provinces or cities.
They form what are known as provincial clubs. It is
natural for fellow-provincials and fellow-townsmen to
feel drawn toward one another while residing among
strangers. The attachment with one's native place is not
easily dissolved ; in fact, it is apt to be strengthened by
absence. The custom of reckoning one's birthplace by
that of one's grandfather, which obtains in China uni-
versally, tends further to prolong the attachment with
one's native place. This attachment for a common na-
tive place is the ground of association among the co-
provincials.

The number of provincial and district clubs in any one
city is varied according to the importance of the place as

^ Td-i-lu, bk. viii, sec i.
' Morse, Gilds of China, pp. 35-48.

88 THE SPIRIT OF CHINESE PHILANTHROPY [88

a trading centre. The city of Shanghai, in the province
of Kiangsu, had a Chinese population of 488,000 in 1910,
of which 232,982 were natives of 17 outside provinces.
One province alone sent out 168,761 individuals, while
the smallest number from a single province was 407.
There must be therefore as many provincial clubs as
there are provinces represented, and probably many
more. A much smaller city, Chingkiang, is reported to
have at least twelve such clubs,' composed of members
from eight outside provinces.

Functions of the Clubs : Social and Charitable : These
district and provincial clubs are called Hwei-Kwan.^
They exist for mutual protection and aid and social and
business intercourse. The membership of a Hwei-kwan
consists of all reputable natives of the home province or
district. The government of the club is vested in the
hands of one or more managers, elected by the mem-
bers. The income of the club is derived from assess-
ment upon the members, initiation fees and rentals of
real estate.

The club naturally serves as an agency for the practice
of philanthropy both among its own members and
others. It takes care of transients from the home pro-
vince or district, assists needy members, provides free
transportation or burial of poor co-provincials, helps
needy students, co-provincials, who come to the place
for their Imperial examinations, and helps members in
the redress of wrongs. It becomes, moreover, a con-
venient channel through which members may be reached

* Population for the " Port Settlement " only, 1910, in China Mission
Year Book, 191 1.

^Imperial Maritime Customs, Decennial Report, 1892-1901, vol. i,
p. 461.

' Morse, op. cit., pp. 35-38.

89] MUTUAL BENEFIT 89

by appeals for subscription to charitable works of the
place where they are.

IV TRADE AND CRAFT GUILDS '

The Basis of Association: Association in trade and
craft guilds is based upon community of interests, in-
dustrial, professional and commercial. The guilds are
societies, with specific objects in view, and the con-
sciousness of kind among members is based upon neither
considerations of consanguinity nor of locality in itself,
although the latter must necessarily affect guild forma-
tion, but upon common ecnomic and cultural interests.

The number of guilds is unlimited, for there are pos-
sible as many kinds of guilds as there are trades, profes-
sions and forms of labor. And so there are bankers'
guilds, tea guilds, druggists' guilds, fishmongers' guilds,
millers' guilds, wheelbarrow guilds, physicians' guilds,
and so on. They are known as Kung-so, or Public
Offices.*

Functions of the Gutlds : Trade and Charity : The
guilds exist primarily for the promotion of the interests
of the ^ecific trades, crafts, etc. They therefore exer-
cise control of the trades, fix wages and prices, regulate
supplies of professional services, and exercise other func-
tions pertaining to the interests they represent. The
government and support of the guilds follow the general
lines described in connection with provincial clubs.

In matters of social relief, these guilds become mutual
benefit agencies. Members assist one another and their
families in misfortune, their association being the
ground for co-operation in relief. Moreover, just as
provincial clubs are convenient channels through which
to reach their members for subscriptions to charitable

* Morse, ibid., pp. 9-34. * Morse, ihid., p. 9.

90 THE SPIRIT OF CHINESE PHILANTHROPY [90

works, so these craft and trade guilds are equally con-
venient channels through which to gain the support of
shop-keepers, business establishments, professional and
labor bodies for charitable works. This method of rais-
ing funds is commonly resorted to by philanthropic insti-
tutions. It is a fruitful method, as the guilds are able
to unite the trades and make them contribute as corpora-
tions for such objects. Thus, the Hall of United
Benevolence at Shanghai systematically appeals to vari-
ous guilds for their support. The following is a sample
of such an appeal :

At the establishment of the institution in the 9th year of
Kiaking, it comprised the four departments of relief of widows,
support of the aged, dispensing of coffins and burial of the
poor. They were afterwards extended by the support of a
free school, a fund for sparing animal life, the supply of water
buckets and padded clothes for assisting in case of fire, funeral
expenses, the (relief of starving strangers, wayside deaths and
"casualties by drowning, all involving a great expenditure. We
have been constantly favored, Worthy Gentlemen, by your
donations, annual subscriptions and contributions, besides die
voluntary 10 cash coffin-tickets, voluntary vagrant-tickets, and
voluntary padded-coat-tickets; you have opened your purses
and cheerfully aided the effecting of all those objects. In the
first month of the present year our magistrate opened a refuge
for the board and lodging of destitute sick and infirm. This
necessarily involved us in a large amount of expenditure and
the income was not sufficient to meet the outlay. We have
been led to consider how that which is raised by many is easily
supported, and how the joining of many small pieces will
soon make a whole skin. Therefore, as at our instance, the
honorable g^ild of the bean merchants increased their volun-
tary impost, we respectfully solicit the honorable guilds of the
cloth merchants here and in the south of Tsz'-ki in Chekiang
to follow the same plan pursued by the bean merchants and to

9 1 ] MUTUAL BENEFIT y j

send us in a regular subscription. Thus by the conscientious
assistance to so worthy an object it will be perpetuated.^

Voluntary Assessment for Charitable Purposes : The
guilds have the practice of making assessments upon
their members for charitable purposes based upon the
volume of business they enjoy. These assessments are
arranged by the managers of the guilds and are made
known by public proclamations. The following is a
sample of such a guild- enactment : •

The worthy scholars of Shanghai, in consequence of the
subscription purchase of the free burial-ground by Tang, the
former magistrate of this city, agreed upon adopting the name
of Tung- Jin Tang (United Benevolence Hall), and with noble
elevation of mind purchased several halls and rooms for a
public place of the institution. At the commencement of the
9th year of Kiaking it was determined to do good by the effect-
ing of four objects. The spirit of United Benevolence is very
wide, and it is difficult to say where it should begin and where
end. As it is, the support of the aged, relief of widows, with
the procuring of coffins and burial are four objects affecting
the greatest amount of misery of the living or of the dead,
and which are also most striking to the eye and wounding to
the heart. It is therefore imperative that with unremitting
efforts these should be made their first business. But for such
undertakings the necessary expenditure is very large. Benevo-
lent purposes should be universally upheld. We, of this branch
of trade, therefore, fearful lest at any time our resources for
subscriptions should be limited, conceived that nothing could
be better than to subscribe small sums according to the supply
of commodity, which would be a plan for the perpetuation of
a continual contribution. We, accordingly, came to a public
determination that from the middle of the first month of the

* Chinese Repository, vol. xv, p. 417.
2 Ibid,, vol. XV, pp. 414-415.

92 THE SPIRIT OF CHINESE PHILANTHROPY [92

present year, with the exception of rice, every description of
bean, wheat, pulse, etc., should for every 100 piculs pay a sub-
scription of 14 cash and the bean-cakes 7 cash for every 100
piculs. This subscription is to be paid into the hands of the
monthly treasurer, according to the monthly supply of the
trade, for the public fund of the Tung- Jin-Tang. There may
not be the slightest concealment or diminution which would
at once destroy the invariable principle of justice on which we
wish to act, and if any discovery of fraud should hereafter
take place, it is determined that a heavy fine and forfeiture
shall be the penalty.

But as our trade has been gradually flourishing and the ob-
jects of the institution demand of us to supply the deficiency
from our surplus, and since also the operations of the institu-
tion are daily extending, it is our htmible opinion that the
promotion of good and bestowal of blessing tends to increase
the prosperity of our trade.

The enforcement of the enactment by one trade-g^ild
resulted in enlisting 75 stores which were members of
the guild to contribute regularly to the charity fund by
voluntary assessment. We may therefore regard the
guilds as not only promoting the welfare of their own
members, but also as being powerful agencies for the sup-
port of outside charities.

Conclusion : From the foregoing considerations it ap-
pears that the social organization of the Chinese people
is such as greatly to facilitate not only the cultivation of
co-operation and mutual aid, but also to render easy the
application of these principles in the field of practical
philanthropy.

CHAPTER V

Civic Betterment

Philanthropy as Promotion of Social Welfare : In the
foregoing chapters we have described two phases of
philanthropy as understood and developed among the
Chinese, vis,, charity for the dependent classes of so-
ciety, and mutual benefit. It remains for us to describe
the third phase of Philanthropy, namely, Civic Better-
ment. In including this last phase within the field of
philanthropy, we are understanding the term in its broad-
est significance, that is. Promotion of Social Welfare.

According to Chinese conception and practice, civic
betterment is a legitimate department of philanthropy and
it is a legitimate field in which one may devote one's
altruistic energies. Thus one person may found a free
school for the education of youth, another may open his
private park to the public, and thus provide general
opportunity for esthetic and cultural enjoyment, and a
third person may contribute toward building a bridge or
maintaining a free ferry service. All would be called
philanthropists or social benefactors.

The inaction of the Government toward social welfare
has been such that the problem of civic betterment has
fallen almost entirely upon the shoulders of the people
themselves. To show the attitude of Government toward
the social welfare of the people, and the freedom with which
the people are allowed to undertake the work by them-
selves, we will briefly describe the political organization

93] 93

94 THE SPIRIT OF CHINESE PHILANTHROPY [94

under which the people find themselves both in theory
and in practise.

TAe Chinese Government^ in Theory and in Practise :
The Imperial Government of the Chinese Empire has
been generally known as an Absolute Oriental Monarchy.
It is so in theory at least. The Emperor rules by divine
right ; the people are his subjects. His will is the state ;
and. disobedience is treason. He governs the empire
with the assistance of his ministers, who together with
other high officials form what is known as the Metro-
politan Administration, and with the service of civil and
military officials appointed and sent by the throne to
their posts throughout the empire. The people are sup-
posed to have no share in the government. But this
absolute monarchy is true only in theory. In practise
it is far from being absolute. If we study closely the
political organization of the country, we find that the
Imperial Government has been founded on a principle,
more in accord with Spencer's view of minimum state
authority than with an imperialist's conception of state
authority.

For administration the country is divided into prov-
inces, the provinces divided into prefectures, and the
prefectures into districts, which are the smallest admin-
istrative units." The districts are governed by magis-
trates, the magistrates are supervised by prefects, the
prefects are under the jurisdiction of the governors of
the provinces, and the provinces stand in a relation of
quasi-independence to the Central or Metropolitan Ad-
ministration. The Central Government appoints all the
officials of the empire and exercises power of removal
of the same, makes laws and levies taxes, and employs

^ There are 183 prefectures in the 18 provinces of -Qiina proper, and
1,443 districts.

95] CIVIC BETTERMENT 95

the provincial and subordinate officials to enforce the
laws and collect the taxes. Beyond these minimum
requirements for administrative purposes and a general
disciplinary oversight by the Central government, the
provinces are left largely to their own control. Hence
it has been said, " the government of China is an auto-
cratic rule superposed on a democracy." '

The District Municipality: The Imperial Rule comes
into contact with the people through the District Magis-
trate, who is the appointed official and representative of
the Government for the smallest political division, the
District. His jurisdiction extends over a walled city and
the surburban and rural territory lying around it as far
as the boundaries of neighboring Districts. The Dis-
trict is the civic, political, judicial and fiscal unit, where-
by the people of China are divided. The District is con-
sequently the most important unit of social and political
organization, and the Magistrate, the most important
Government official so far as the people are concerned.

Paternalism: The District Magistrate is the holder
of a very large number of offices and he performs many
functions. He is the Mayor of the District, the police
Magistrate of the city, the Court of first instance in all
civil cases arising in the District, the Registrar of the
landed property of the inhabitants, the Tax collector for
the Provincial and Metropolitan Administrations, the
Poor Relief Commissioner, the Commissioner of Public
Works and Buildings, and the Guardian of the Morals
and Physical well-being of the people of his jurisdiction.
In short he is everything, and so metaphorically is
known as the "Father and Mother" of his people.'

* Morse, Trade and Administration of Chinese Empire, p. 46.

* Morse, ibid., pp. 6^-72.

^6 THE SPIRIT OF CHINESE PHILANTHROPY [96

Defects In Administration: In theory therefore, the
social welfare of the people is a well recognized function
of the Government and is amply provided for by law. But
in practise, there are serious defects in Public Finance
and Administrative organization which prevent the Dis-
trict Magistrate from carrying on his functions for social
welfare, or oblige him to undertake only an indispens-
able minimum of the work. These defects are as follows :
(i) The District Magistrate has no proper funds at his
disposal, specifically designated for his various functions
and offices; he must find the funds himself. (2) The
Magistrate is given an insignificant official salary, a sum
entirely inadequate as compensation for his duties and
responsibilities, for maintaining the dignity of his office
and for maintaining his subordinates. He is expected
to derive his real compensation from emoluments of his
office. (3) The chief source for funds to carry on the
District Administration is the land-tax. But the Magis-
trate is also the tax-collector for the Provincial and
Metropolitan Administrations. That is to say, the in-
come of the tax is not all retained for local purposes.
Out of what may be retained for local purposes, the
Magistrate finds the funds for his administration, and
the salaries for his subordinates, and for himself. But
the tax has been fixed by tradition; and there is no
possibility of increase, without antagonizing the people,
since in the utilization of the revenue the people have no
voice. Under these circumstances, no motive arises to
prevent the Magistrate from appropriating as much
as possible from the official revenue both for himself,
and for his friends in office, or from neglecting the local
needs of the people excepting the absolutely unavoid-
able. Rarely do Magistrates impoverish themselves in
order to be the " Father and Mother " of their people.

97] CIVIC BETTERMENT 97

What is called official corruption in Chinese Government
is therefore due not merely to human weakness in the
officials but also to defects in the organization of the
Government itself. Reform in the organization of the
Government is therefore more needed than reform in the
individual officials.

Slate Neglect: The result is a government with a well-
meaning paternalism and a theory of existing for the
well-being of the people, but in reality impotent to pro-
mote their interests, and so estranged from their sym-
pathies. The District municipality becomes like the
other political divisions of the country merely an admin-
istrative unit of the Central Government, and not an
organ for the satisfaction of local needs of the people, as
it should be. The hundred and one undertakings, such
as roads, street-lights, removal of rubbish, water-supply,
school system, police, fire- protection, etc, which people
of the West are accustomed to regard as functions of a
municipal government are, with a few exceptions of
recent date, never undertaken by the proper Government
officials. For these, the people are left to work out
their own salvation in perfect freedom. Thus, the Gov-
ernment of China as far as the well-being of the people is
concerned resembles a temporarily set-up tent, fastened
to the national soil with a few pegs and propped up with
a few poles here and there, rather than a permanent
building of stone and mortar firmly grounded on national
foundations.

Practical Democracy: One condition which has made
the people tolerate a government estranged from their
lives is its permitting them to live in perfect freedom and
autonomy, provided the minimum taxation is paid and
the moral principles of the Penal Code are observed.
What the people everywhere desire is unhampered free-

98 THE SPIRIT OF CHINESE PHILANTHROPY [98

dom for pursuing their livelihood, and this the Chinese
have in abundance. A keen American observer, Hon.
Holcombe, writes thus :

In point of fact the Chinese are governed less than almost
any nation in the world. So long as they pay their taxes and
violate none of the requirements of the moral code, they are
not disturbed by the authorities. A thousand and one official
inspections, exactions and interferences, common enough
everywhere in America and Europe are quite unknown in
China.^

Dr. Coolidge, author of Chinese Immigration^ says : " If
the Chinese Government be regarded from the top it ap-
pears to be a centralized autocracy; if from the bottom,
a pure democracy.''

Popular CO'Operatiiie Undertakings: The govern-
ment's neglect is the people's opportunity. We have
shown the relative part taken by the Government and
the people respectively in charities : that the Governmnnt
takes a relatively insignificant part in the relief of the de-
pendent classes, and that the people have the work al-
most entirely in their own hands. We have also shown
how the factor of mutual aid among the people enters
into the whole fabric of social organization. We will now
show how, in the absence of an aggressive Governmental
pursuit of social welfare, the people themselves have
undertaken the necessary philanthropic work by co-
operative measures grouped under the title of Civic
Betterment.

I. FREE EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES

Government Education : Until the institution of Hioh
Pu, or Board of Education by the Metropolitan Admin-

* Real Chinese Question, p. 4.

99] CIVIC BETTERMENT 99

istration in 1903, there was no national system of educa-
tion. Prior to that date, there had existed for upwards
of ten centuries the Imperial Literary Examinations.
But these were concerned more with tests for civil ser-
vice, rather than with the actual education of the people.
The latter has almost entirely been in the hands of the
people themselves. Since the institution of the Educa-
tional Board, the Government has inauguarated a system
of public education which intends eventually to cover the
empire with free educational opportunities as completely
as in any modern country. In 1910 there were already
42,650 new educational institutions of all grades in China ;
but it is a note-worthy fact that the public and private
institutions out-numbered Government institutions.'

Free Charity Schools : Charity organizations have en-
tered into the field of providing free educational oppor-
tunities for the poor. The Hall of United Benevolence
reported maintaining a free school;* and the Hall of
Sustaining Love at Canton reported the maintenance dur-
ing 1872 of 19 schools with twenty teachers, and 15
schools with 16 teachers in 1873.3 We have already
referred to school work for children of widows, and
provision by clans for the education of their own young
people.

Public Lectures : Another instrument for popular ed-
ucation is free lectures. The reports of the Hall of
Sustaining Love showed that in 1872, the society en-
gaged the services of three lecturers, for a total of 16
months. In 1873, it engaged three lecturers for a total
of 18 months.* There are also voluntary societies which

* China Mission Year Book, 191 1, p. 79.

* Report in Chinese Repository, vol. xv, pp. 402 et seq.

* China Review, vol. iii, pp. 108 et seq.

* China Review, vol. iii, pp. 108 et seq.

lOO THE SPIRIT OF CHINESE PHILANTHROPY [loo

take up the work of lecturing. Td-i-lu contains the
record of a society founded in 1755, which besides dis-
tributing books, posters, songs and pictures, conducted
lectures. The method was to have a lecturing team
consisting of earnest and eloquent speakers spend the
first three days of a month at the club house, and then
spend the other seven of the first ten days in the month
in visiting different sections of the city.

The lectures are almost always concerned with morals,
it being the belief that the morals of the people are the
foundation of national prosperity. The following sample
is on record in Td-i-lu * /

This society teaches men to be good. Those who come to
hear must have the elements of good already in them. They
have the good intention to come and so they will have good
words to hear. One good word stimulates one good thought,
and the man is good for life : do not depreciate this sentence.
In this way daily dangers may be turned into advantage, and
death itself into life.

Everyone has parents : let him serve them ;

Everyone has elders : let him respect them ;

Everyone has nighbors : let him be at peace with them ;

Everyone has children : let him teach them properly ;

Let everyone do his duty: If he does it not, but what he
ought not to do, he becomes a criminal. Note how criminals
are invariably discovered and brought to justice. See what
miserable end do the squanderer and the gambler always come
to. When they founder in trouble, then they envy the lot of
the common latorer who toils in the street earning his honest
livelihood with diligence and in freedom. The good people
are always honored by their neighbors, and prized by their
parents and elders, and blessed by Heaven with prosperous
and numerous progeny. They shed honor upon the name of

1 Bk. i, sec. ii, p. 19.

1 • » ^

» " » -*

M « « ' a

lOi] CIVIC BETTERMENT loi

their parents and ancestors. This is true filial piety and
worthier than sacrifices. Let everyone who hears start the
day with a good thought. Those who have been already good,
be steadfast ; those who are not good, repent ; it is never too
late to reform.

Literary Censorship: Another function along educa-
tional lines is the suppression of indecent literature and a
censorship of popular plays and songs. This is generally
undertaken by reputable publishers who agree to buy up
the indecent literature and destroy their plates. The
movement is enforced with fines for recalcitrant pub-
lishers.'

Other activities, along educational lines, are distribu-
tion of tracts, useful information, songs, pictures and
posters calculated to improve public morals; and the
collection and burning of waste printed matter to incul-
cate respect for letters. In some cities there are owners
of private parks equipped with libraries, zoological sec-
tions and aquariums, who open them for the enjoyment
of the public, admission being either free or by payment
of a nominal fee.

II. PUBLIC SAFETY AND PROTECTION

Under this heading there are several forms of activity
engaged in by charity societies and voluntary associ-
ations, such as life-saving on water, pilot-boats and fire
protection. They are agencies for safety and protection
of lives and property.

The Life-saving Station at Wuhu : * This association
came into existence before the Tai-ping rebellion, i. ^.,
before the middle of the nineteenth century. It has its

' Nevius, China and the Chinese, p. 221.
2 Report of the Association in China Review, vol. vi, p. 277, et seq.

• .'. * • • »

• • • " '.

1 02 THE SPIRIT OF CHINESE PHILANTHROPY [102

offices along the shore, and its object is to render assist-
ance to persons and boats in distress on the river. Its
equipment consists of life-boats, administration offices,
rooms for the rescued persons and burial ground for the
drowned.

Life-boats: The boats are manned by crews that live
on board all the time. Each boat has a helmsman and
four sailors. On account of the importance of their
duties the crews are carefully selected and disciplined.
The regulations read in part :

Men wishing to serve in the life-boats should come to this
office with their securities when an agreement will be made out
and signed. The Association will not be responsible for
accidents met with in their service, such as slipping overboard
or being lost in stormy weather. All it can do in such cases
is to provide a coffin; it will not listen to claims for com-
pensation.

The crews are required to live on board the boats, and
may not absent themselves without leave. Should any
be called away on account of urgent business, he must
find his own substitute. Gambling, drinking and opium-
smoking are forbidden ; criminals may not be sheltered
on board nor contraband goods received thereon. For
light offenses, dismissal from employment is the punish-
ment, but for heavy offenses the offender is handed
over to the penal authorities for punishment.

The boats must always be in readiness. Whether in
day or in night, in storm or in rain, the boats must
put out to render assistance to boats or persons in dis-
tress, at the summons of the alarm-drum. For the
encouragement of the crew, they are, besides their
regular wages, rewarded for their diligence. For saving
one life the reward is 1000 coins ; for a corpse recovered

103] CIVIC BETTERMENT 103

the reward is 500 coins; and during nights the sums
are doubled.

In case of an accident, human life must receive first
attention, and only after all possible help has been given
for rescue of life may attention be turned to the recovery
of lost goods. The life-boats must proceed to save life,
and after having ascertained that everybody on board
the wrecked vessel is accounted for, convey the rescued
persons to the station. Should there be anyone miss-
ing, search must be made on all sides, and dead or alive
every individual must be found before the cargo is at-
tended to.

When a person is saved, he is brought to the office
and lodged in the rooms prepared for such transients for
three days, during which time he is cared for and clothed
by the Association. In the case of a woman refugee, the
local constable is notified and he must find her suitable
lodging with some married woman of elderly years.
With a man, no matter how distant his destination may
be, traveling expenses are given him and he is sent away
after the third day. But a woman is not sent away until
her relatives come to claim her, or at least until her
family is notified of the fact.

Careful records of the persons saved, together with
their names, home addresses, and the dates are kept at
the office. Unclaimed bodies of the drowned are buried
by the association. In one year (1876) 52 lives were
rescued and 46 corpses recovered on the river. Assist-
ance was given also to many vessels in hardship. Goods
recovered are brought to the administration office, where
they await reclaiming by the proper owners.

Management and Finances*. Association business is
taken care of by a salaried Committee of 12 men, who
occupy the offices in groups of four at a time. As to

I04 THE SPIRIT OF CHINESE PHILANTHROPY [104

the duties of the Committee-men, it is required that
they shall always keep in touch with one another, and
co-operate heartily, for "it is by co-operation that the
good cause can be best furthered."

The finances of the association are derived from several
sources. A part of the funds comes from civil officials,
but the major part from voluntary contributions. Pub-
licity is rigidly maintained through monthly and annual
reports. Of the annual reports, it is recorded, one copy
is kept at the association office, another copy goes to the
District magistrate, and a third is solemnly burned before
the local god.

At this religious performance, all the officers of the
Association must be present, and together they make the
following declaration :

We, the managers of the Life Saving Association venture
to come before thee, O God, and humbly represent that owing
to the vastness of the waters and the raging of the billows in
the rivers of Wuhu, a sudden squall striking the passing craft
and taking the sailors unawares will cause ship-wreck and
loss of life.

Though we are aware that the term' of a man's life is al-
ready decreed and that Heaven's power may not be opposed,
yet such sights grieve the heart. Thus it is that we have
sought means to save life, and that persons have come to-
gether to form a Life Saving association, supported entirely
by voluntary contributions. Premises have been erected and
boats built with the object of affording security from danger,
ensuring a safe passage in stormy weather, A public cemetery
has been opened for the burial of the dead and coffins are
kept ready for use. Thus are good deeds done, afloat and
ashore. A statement of receipts and disbursements has been
prepared and in this work of humanity we have been faith-
ful to the trust reposed in us by the benevolent subscribers.

We pray Thee to examine our conduct, and to mete out

105] CIVIC BETTERMENT 105

justice to us. May we be punished if we have sacrificed the
public good to our private ends, and if we have been laborers
unworthy of our hire, if we misappropriated public funds, or
if we have caused subscribers to fall oflF by spreading false
reports. While on the other hand, may we be recompensed if
we have discharged our duty with all fidelity sparing neither
trouble nor fatigue. This we pray to the end that good deeds
may endure forever. Humbly we submit our statement of ac-
counts for the year now ended.*

Public declaration before the gods is obviously
prompted by a utilitarian motive : to gain the confidence
of the people and to satisfy the supporters of the honesty
of the administration. The utilization of the religious
propensities of the people may not be disadvantageous
in winning support for charitable undertakings, and we
find many a charitable institution having patronage deities
and religious observances.

Other riparian cities have similar life-boats, such as
Ching-Kiang, Nanking, and Ichang. The boats of the
last city are known as Red-boats on account of the color
of their paint. Here the boats were first managed by a
co-operative society, but later were taken over by the
Government because of the importance of the service to
the trade of the place.

The *' Red'Boats^^ of Ichang :* Ichang is a city situ-
ated at a place along the Yantse River, where the stream
enters a ravine between high mountainous shores and
where there are treacherous rapids. Before the establish-
ment of the Red-boats Service, the dangers of the river,
although known, were avoided with difficulty, much
loss of lives and property often occurring. At first the

* China Review, vol. vi, p. 283.

* Imperial Maritime Customs, Decennial Report, 18^-1901, vol. i,
pp. 201-204.

Io6 THE SPIRIT OF CHINESE PHILANTHROPY [io6

fishing boats in the neighborhood were paid small sums
to enlist them in the work of rescue. But the plan did
not succeed, because it often happened that at the time
of a wreck no fishing boat was near enough to the scene
of disaster to render any assistance. In 1854 a pros-
perous merchant, by name Li Yun-kuei, collected sub-
scriptions from the traders whose junks passed through
the rapids, and with the money thus raised he built three
boats after the pattern of the fishing boats, but distin-
guished from the latter by being painted red, to be en-
gaged exclusively in the life-saving and piloting work.
The society formed to manage the boats was called
K'ang Chi T'ang. Later the number of boats was in-
creased to 27. The Government, recognizing the value
of the service, subsidized it, and finally caused it to be
transformed into a Government service and it has since
been managed by the Government with special officials in
charge.

Fire Protection : Chinese municipalities do not have
fire departments, and so for protection against fires, the
people must band themselves together in co-operative
associations. These associations usually conform to the
streets or wards into which a city is divided. The result is
a net- work of fire brigades and stations covering the whole
city. In some places the administration of these brigades
is taken care of by the charity societies. Thus the Hall
of United Benevolence at Shanghai has a fire protection
department.^ It maintains eleven stations throughout
the city. Each station is provided with equipment
for fighting fires, such as engines, lanterns, firemen's
uniforms, etc. Each station has ten men under a head-
man. These men are paid for their services after each
occurrence of fire.

^ Chinese Repository, vol. xv, pp. 409-410.

I07] CIVIC BETTERMENT 107

III. FREE PUBLIC SERVICE

In free public service we include not only agencies of
transportation, such as ferries, but also means of com-
munication, such as roads and bridges, maintained by
voluntary subscription to serve a public free of charge or
for a nominal fee. Thus it has been observed by foreign
travelers in China:

It is also worthy of remark that most of the roads and fine
archbridges, as well as the public buildings of China, are con-
structed by voluntary donations. In connection with these
public works, it is very common to see stone tablets erected,
containing the names of the donors and the amounts of their
subscriptions.^

Such undertakings are usually entrusted to local charity
societies and sometimes to special societies.

Lights and Bridges : The Hall of United Benevolence
maintains lights at four places along water-ways around
Shanghai, and pays for the services of four men engaged
in taking care of the lights. It repairs roads and pave-
ments, cleans sewers, and keeps up the bridges. Dur-
ing 1909, besides miscellaneous repairing, it paid for
574 yards of road-paving, replaced a bridge-railing, and
repaired eight bridges."

Free Ferry Service : The Life Saving Association at
Wuhu ran a free ferry across the river, according to its
report 3 for 1875. It possessed six boats for this service,
two having a capacity of 60 passengers each, two forty
passengers each, and two ten each. The boats were
manned according to their sizes. For the large ones,

' J. L. Nevius, China and the Chinese, p. 224.

• Report of the Hall for 1909^

• China Review, vol. vi, pp. 277-283.

Io8 Tii^ SPIRIT OF CHINESE PHILANTHROPY [io8

there was a helmsman and four sailors ; for the middle-
sized, a helmsman and three sailors, and for the small
ones, a helmsman and two sailors.

On both sides of the river there were landing stations
and ticket offices. A flag raised upon a pole indicated
the period during which the service was in operation. It
was limited to the day-time. In the night and in severe
storms, the boats would not run and the flag was not
hoisted up.

Each passenger went aboard with a ticket. When the
full number of tickets was collected, the boat proceeded
for the other shore. But for special parties, such as a
funeral party, a physician in his professional visitation, a
marriage party, the boats would cross the river without
the full number.

These boats were maintained by voluntary subscrip-
tions. As an inducement, a subscriber for a certain sum
of money would be given a ferry pass, if he had use for
one, which entitled the holder to prompt service.

IV. Municipal Self-government by the People

Its Evolution : The work of the philanthropic and
co-operative associations for civic betterment, as de-
scribed above, belongs to the class of municipal func-
tions and has been undertaken by the people themselves
because of neglect by the Government authorities, as
we have already pointed out. Beginning in volun-
tary co-operation for mutual benefit, these undertakings
gradually become established by custom and finally are
recognized as public institutions, both by the people and
the civil authorities. At first scattered and uncoor-
dinated, the agencies for these undertakings gradually
coalesce and consolidate into one system. Thus results
what is virtually municipal self-government by the people.

I09] CIVIC BETTERMENT 109

Instead of the civil authorities protesting against the en-
croachment on their authorities, they encourafs^e this de-
velopment of popular self-rule by graving it full recognition
and freedom of action.

The Case of the Newchwang Guild: An early case
illustrating this evolution is that of the Local Guild of
Newchwang, Manchuria, reported in the Decennial Re-
ports of Imperial Maritime Customs for 1882-1891/
The Local Guild is made up of the principal native mer-
chants of the city, and practically combines in itself the
duties of a municipal council and those of a chamber of
commerce. It maintains order in the streets, takes care
of the roads, drains and reservoirs, controls public lands,
administers poor relief, subsidizes charitable institutions,
controls banks, regulates exchanges of trade, marts
and transportation. It finances its activities by taxation
upon transactions between merchants not natives of the
city but residing and doing business therein, by collect-
ing bridge-dues upon carts transporting goods, and shop
dues ; for all of which the guild has the authorization of
the local civil officials. The authority of the gfuild and
its method of administration is shown in the proclama-
tions it issues. The following is one concerning bridge-
dues:

It is generally understood that living traffic is a sure sign
of a town's prosperity. To encourage traffic, therefore the
public thorough- fares must be kept in good repair.

A former president of the Guild built bridges across the
streams and tidal creeks in the vicinity of Ying-tsu for public
use, but as nothing was done to keep them in repair, the strong
current gradually undermined the supports, so that many
bridges were in danger of collapsing.

' Pp. 34 ^/ seq*.

no THE SPIRIT OF CHINESE PHILANTHROPY [no

The roads, too were the cause of universal complaint.

A subscription was consequently raised from the resident
merchants to defray the annual outlay for repairing the roads
and bridges in the neighborhood of the port.

During the Summer of the second year of Emperor Kuang
Hsu (1876) continued rains did much harm to the public
thoroughfares, suspending thereby a great deal of the cart
traffic. This state of affairs coming to the ears of the
Taotai, he issued orders to the Guild that the roads and bridges
were to be promptly put in thorough repair. This was done
at great expense, and the ordinary subscription not proving
sufficient to meet the unusual outlay, a plan was devised to tax
all carts carrying merchandise. Permission having been re-
ceived from the Tartar General and the Civil Governor at
Moukden, through the influence of the Taotai, a tax was then
instituted, which has been continued up to the present time.

The Guild now informs the public that beginning with to-
day, the First of the Ninth Moon and ending with the First
of the Third Moon of the following year, bridge-dues will
be levied on all carts laden with produce of any kind at the
following rates : ^

Local Self' Government y A Growing Movement : Dur-
ing recent years, local self-government by the people is
developing in many cities and towns. It is distinctly
encouraged by the Imperial Government as a step in the
preparation toward Constitutional Parliamentary Govern-
ment. A short time ago the writer sent out some ques-
tions to his friends at Shanghai in regard to municipal
self-government in that city. The replies are significant.
They show that self-government is directly sanctioned by
the local civil officials and indirectly by the Imperial
Government ; that local government is in the hands of the
franchised citizens of the city, who elect the officers of the

^ ^Ihid., p. 37.

Ill] CIVIC BETTERMENT 1 1 1

local administration, but that the district magistrate acts
as a director and advisor and that it practically takes over
all the functions of a municipality, including the powers
of taxation and police. The new local self-government
supervises the educational institutions, opens free schools,
undertakes sanitation, street-cleaning, public works, light-
ing, police, traffic regulation, supervision of commercial
amusements, inspection of food-markets ; it makes its
own laws and enforces them, and collects taxes. The
taxes are called Public Welfare Taxes, and consist of
house and shop tax, license of vehicles and of boats, tax
on advertisement spaces, commercial amusements, and
food-markets. An interesting fact is that the budgets
of the Shanghai Municipal Self-government contain an
estimate of the yearly incomes and expenditure of the
charitable institutions oE the city, indicating that the
municipality is aiming at including among its functions
supervision and support of these hitherto voluntary and
independent institutions. The new self-government ad-
ministration does not displace the old civil govern-
ment of the city. That is to say, the magistrate who is
the appointed representative and agent of the provincial
and imperial administrations still retains his office, col-
lects the land taxes and forwards them to the higher ad-
ministrations. There is a division of labor. The magis-
trate takes care of the city as far as it is an administrative
unit of the empire ; while the new local government takes
care of the city as such for the satisfaction of its local
needs.

The New Poliiical Rigime : In the famous constitution
of 1908 promulgated by the Imperial Government, local
self-government is fully instituted and defined. In
principle it aims to preserve the functions and powers
which the district magistrate now exercises intact, and

1 12 THE SPIRIT OF CHINESE PHILANTHROPY [112

to superadd upon the existing regime, the new organiza-
tion for local self-government, along the lines we have
already described in connection with the local self-gov-
ernment of Shanghai city.

It is thus apparent that by successive and almost im-
perceptible gradations, what was, in the beginning, mere
voluntary co-operative measures on the part of the
people for mutual protection and civic betterment on the
occasion of official omission in a political organization,
wherein popular franchise was unknown, has become one
of the fundamental features of a new order of political
life, wherein popular franchise and self-government are
the essential features. The outward suddenness, ap-
parently suggested by the promulgation of the new Con-
stitution and the transition from an Absolute Monarchy
to a democratic form of government is therefore more
apparent than real. Silent causes have been working for
generations under the shadow of the old regime, and
the hew regime is their natural consummation.

CHAPTER VI

Conclusion : Rise of National Self-consciousness

AND Solidarity

Chinese Philanthrdpyy the Product of National Genius :
Chinese Philanthropy is a product of the genius of the
Chinese Nation. It is organically related with the life,
tradition and ideals of the nation, and from them has de-
rived its energy, its guiding principles and character-
istics. It is an expression of Chinese civilization.

Democratic Foundation : The notable characteristic of
Chinese Philanthropy is its democratic foundation.
Instead of being a state institution, it has been more a
popular one ; instead of being fostered under the pater-
nalism and direction of the state, it has been developed
by the co-operation and initative of the people.

Esprit de Corps of Minor Social Groups : The spirit
of Chinese Philanthropy indicates a developed social
consciousness in the hearts of the people. There is a
strong sense of social solidarity, which shows itself in
the many sharing the burden of the poverty, want and
misfortune of the few, in the readiness to give mutual aid,
and in the voluntary co-operative undertaking for civic
betterment. The sense of social solidarity is strongest
in the esprit de corps of the minor social groups within
the nation, such as the clan, the village, the District,
the Province, and the guilds.

Absence of National Consciousness in the Past : Until
the beginning of the present century, there had not
113] "3

1 14 THE SPIRIT OF CHINESE PHILANTHROPY [ 1 14

been a national self-consciousness and solidarity com-
parable in strength with the spirit and solidarity of
the minor social groups. This is attributable both to
the presence of unfavorable conditions, and to the ab-
sence of favorable conditions for the development and
sustenance of the spirit of nationalism. The gigantic
territory of the empire, the want of convenient and rapid
means of communication between widely-separated parts,
the resulting effect in the diversification of local dialects,
and to a less extent of local customs, and the absence
of a powerful, aggressive, centralized national Govern-
ment have been some of the conditions which deterred
the rise of national consciousness^ and solidarity in the
people.

Geographical Isolation and Absence of Conflict : But
there was a condition, whose presence in the national
experience of China exercised an even greater influence
than the above-mentioned conditions in the determent of
the rise of national consciousness and solidarity, namely,
geographical isolation. During historic times since the
occupation of the empire in its present dimensions in
the second century B. C. and until the last century
A. D., China was practically cut off from intercourse
with the other historic peoples of the world by physical
barriers, the oceans and the mountains. The only im-
portant people with whom China came into hostile con-
tact for any considerable number of times during the
2000 years down to the middle of the nineteenth century
were the Tartars from the north and northwest. Geo-
graphical isolation has meant, therefore, absence of inter-
national conflict. History seems to show that conflict
between" nations is the chief, potent condition for the
rise of national consciousness and solidarity.

Governmental Decentralization : The absence of inter-

115] CONCLUSION 115

national conflict also furnishes a reason for the non-ap-
pearance of a powerful, aggressive, centralized national
government. So long as China remained an isolated
country, having enough productive land and possessions
to satisfy its political ambitions, and having the natural
physical barriers to protect it from foreign attack, it did
not need a very strong, aggressive and centralized na-
tional government. There was need only for so much
of organized government as would insure the primary
conditions of social well-being within the realm, such
as peace, order, security of property, safety of life,
and freedom for lawful pursuit of livelihood. For the
assurance of these primary conditions of social well-
being, decentralization of government may be just as
favorable a policy as centralization, and moral authority
may be more successful than authority of force, if social-
ization is sufficiently advanced and the social population
sufficiently homogeneous. Decentralization and moral
authority would be preferred both for their economy and
their compatibility with the purpose of organized gov-
ernment in such a country. The final picture of the
country would be something as follows : the country
would be divided into administrative units, such as
provinces, prefects and districts; each political division
would be held responsible to the next higher division
for the fulfilment of certain administrative duties, but
otherwise It would be semi-independent; the central
government would be an organ for balancing the works
of the various political units, rather than be their task-
master ; the laws of the land would be little more than
the crystallization of the customs of the nation ; the peo-
ple would be given great freedom and opportunities of
self-government ; the government would utilize some
popular national ethical system or religion as the means

Il6 THE SPIRIT OF CHINESE PHILANTHROPY [ii6

of ruling the people and keeping them in their legitimate
spheres of life and activity.

Such has been actually the case with China until
recently. Mayers, writing in 1878 says, **the central
government of China, so far as a system of this nature is
recognized in the existing institutions, is arranged with
the object rather of registering and checking the action
of the various provincial administrations, than that of
assuming a direct initiative in the conduct of affairs." '
As to the practical freedom and democracy of the Chinese
nation, we have already indicated it in Chapter V.

The New National Consciousness and Solidarity : In-
ternational Relationships : But since the beginning of the
19th century, the conditions of the national life of China
have undergone great change. Geographical isolation
has disappeared on the advent of ocean steamers; China
has become part of the world system of commerce and
international relationships; she has measured strength
with other peoples, and has compared her civilization
with theirs; and so through these international, inter-
racial and inter-cultural contacts, the Chinese nation has
attained self-consciousness, and the national government
is being consolidated and centralized. Thus Morse says:
"The hammering of twenty years has welded the Empire
together, and the Imperial Government was compelled,
in its foreign relationships, to act as a ruler and not as a
mere supervisor, and to adopt a more centralized policy."'

Improved Internal Communication: Besides, new
means of communication have been introduced into the
country, such as railroads, steamships, and the telegraph;
and the distant parts of the empire are brought closer

' Morse, Trade and Administration of the Chinese Empire, p. 53.
• Ibid,, p. 55.

117] CONCLUSION 117

to one another and to the national center, the Captal ;
and so there is better intercourse and intelligence
among the people in the different provinces and dis-
tricts. Again quoting Morse :

In the old days, too, the communication was slow, and two
or three months might elapse before the authorities at Canton
could receive a reply to their request for instructions, with the
result that much must be left to the man on the spot. The in-
troduction of steamers brought Canton, Nanking and Hankow,
the seats of the most important viceroyalties, within a week
of the Capital; and the extension of the telegraphs which
directly resulted from the Russian difficulty of 1880, brought
the most remote of the high provincial authorities into im-
mediate touch with the central administration, and furthered
the centralization which had already become established ; and
now the Empire is ruled from Pekin to an extent unknown
while China still played the hermit*

7 he New Education: There is yet another factor, which
is directly fostering the growth of the spirit of nationalism.
Speaking of this new factor, as awakening the people to
a sense of their citizenship in the nation, Professor
Bevan says :

There are two forces that are welding the Chinese people
and their government into a single nation, one from without
and one from within. Contact with foreign nations has com-
pelled the Chinese nation to assert itself as the actual govern-
ing power throughout the whole empire. Increase of knowl-
edge and the birth of a new education have brought the
people to a real and truer self-realization; and this realiza-
tion of self is driving the people to demand a civilization
similar to the civilizations which they have discovered around

* Morse, op. cit., p. $6.

1 1 8 THE SPIRIT OF CHINESE PHILANTHROPY [ j i8

them. On the one side, there is a movement in the direction
of strengthening the central authority and drawing closer the
ties between the central administration and the administra-
tions of the constituent parts of the empire, while on the
other side there is a demand that the people shall have a share
in the making of the laws and in their carrying out when
made. The central power is attempting to govern either im-
mediately by itself, or indirectly through its agents more di-
rectly and more closely responsible to itself. The people is
trying to make its voice heard in the government councils;
they are making a distinct attempt to obtain for themselves a
share in the legislative and administrative functions of the
empire. The Constitution is an effort to combine these two
forces. *

7 he Nation- Wide Basis of Philanthropy : With the rise
of national self- consciousness and solidarity, philanthropy
will acquire a nation-wide basis of operation. On the one
hand, the extension of social consciousness throughout
the whole nation, uniting the people in all parts of the
empire will extend the field of philanthropy, and facilitate
its application; on the other hand, the centralization of
the Government, the assumption of definite responsibil-
ities and powers by it will ultimately mean a more active
participation of the Government in social welfare. Al-
ready we find the people of all sections of the country
responding to appeals for aid of some particular section
in times of misfortune with greater readiness than was
obtainable ten or twenty years ago. Already, we see the
Government taking up the problem of public education,
and initiating other reforms. Furthermore, whereas
there was estrangement between the Government and

* " The New Chinese Constitution/' in China Mission Year Book,
19".

119] CONCLUSION 119

the people formerly, there seems to be a conscious co-
operation between the two now, such as has been shown
in the co-operation for public education and for the
suppression of opium, because it has been for the first
time clearly realized that the Government and the
people have identical and not variant interests. In other
words, the Government is logically bound to assert itself
in the promotion of the social welfare of the nation.
But in so doing, it will not be so unwise as to discourage
the people's activities along the same lines. Rather the
Government will co-operate with the people by under-
taking those works which lie beyond the power of private
voluntary institutions and associations, or beyond that
of particular cities, and localities, because of juristic
and financial conditions, and by further developing
existing undertakings of the people through financial
assistance and legislative standardization. This seems
to be the new ideal that is actuating the conscience of
the people and the government to-day.

A New National Personality : And so a new era in
China's life has begun. The social consciousness which
was in the past confined within the limits of minor social
groups and associations and political divisions has broken
forth and merged into the larger consciousness of the
nation. The loyalty which people in the past gave un-
conditionally to their immediate clans, localities, guilds,
and provinces, has now found its proper subordination in
the new alignment of allegiance to the nation. In this
transition from the old to the new era, there is, therefore,
a readaptation of the habits of mutual aid and co-opera--
tion, trained in the social functioning and experiences of
smaller associations, for the functioning and experiences
of the larger association, the nation. As a historical fact,
and not as a mere figure of speech, the Twentieth Cen-

I20 THE SPIRIT OF CHINESE PHILANTHROPY [120

tury B, C. witnessed the birth of the Ancient China, and
the Twentieth Century A. D. is witnessing the birth of
the New China, — the evolution of a new National Per-
sonality through new national experiences.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A partial list of publications dted

L. R. O. Bevan. Article: "The New Chinese Constitution," in China

Mission Year Book. Shanghai, 191 1.
H. C. Chen. Economic Principles of Confucius and His School,

N. Y., 191 1.
China Review, Vols. II, III, VI. Shanghai, 1873-1875, i877-i87a
Chinese Repository, Vols. XIV, XV, XVI, XVII. Canton, i84S-i84a
Chuang TsU, Mystic, Moralist and Social Reformer, Tr. H. A. Giles.

London, 1889.
Decennial Reports, 1882-1892; 1892-1901. China, Imperial Maritime

Customs, Shanghai.

E. T. Devine. Principles of Relief, N. Y., 1904.

F. H. Giddings. Principles of Sociology, N. Y., 18961
J. H. Grey. Walks in the City of Canton, 1875.

A. E, Hccker. A Short History of Women's Rights, N. Y., 191a

Hsin Tzu. Essay on Human Nature,

£. Huntington. Pulse of Asia, Boston and N. Y., 1907.

F. H. King. Farmers of Forty Centuries, Madison, Wis, 191 1.

E. Legouve. Moral History of Women, Tr. from 5th Paris Ed. by
J. W. Palmer. N. Y., i860.

Li Ki. Collection of Treatises on the Rules of Propriety or Cere-
monial Usages. Tr. J. Legge, in " Texts of Confucianism,"
Sacred Books of the East, cd. F. Max Muller. Vols. XXVII,
XXVIII, Oxford, 1885.

Liu Hsian. Lives of Virtuous Women,

Mencius. Tr. J. Legge, in Chinese Classics, 2nd Ed. Rev. Vol. II.
Oxford, 1895.

S. Merwins. Drugging a Nation, N. Y., 1908.

H. B. Morse. Gilds of China, N. Y., 1909.

Trade and Administration of the Chinese Empire. London, 1908L

J. L. Nevius. China and the Chinese. N. Y., 1869.

E. H. Parker. China, Her History, Diplomacy and Commerce. Lon-
don, 1901.

— China, Past and Present, London, 1903.

Studies in Chinese Religion, N. Y., 19 10.

E. A. Ross. Changing Chinese. N. Y., 191 1.

121] 121

1 22 BIBUOCRAPHY [ 1 22

A. H. Smith. Village Life in China, A Study in Sociology, N. Y.,

1899.
H. Spencer. Principles of Biology.

Principles of Ethics, N. Y., 1904.

Ta Tsing Leu Lee, Being the Fundamental Laws and a Selection from

the Supplementary Statutes of the Penal Code of China, Tr.

G. T. Staunton. London, 1810.
To'i'lu, Rules and Regulations of Benevolent Institutions. Wu-si,

i86p.

VITA

The author was born in 1886 at Shanghai, China;
graduated from St. John's University, Shanghai, with the
degree of Bachelor of Arts, 1907; was Mann Fellow (S.
J. U.), 1909-1912; was a graduate student in the Faculty
of Political Science, Columbia University, 1909-1912; re-
ceived the degree of Master of Arts, Columbia University,
1910; studied Sociology under Professors F. H. Giddings
and A. A. Tenney; Social Economy under Professors
S. M. Lindsay and E. T. Devine; Religious Education
and Psychology of Religion under Professor G. A. Coe
(Teachers College); also took a course in Ethnology
under Professor L. Farrand and Dr. A. Goldenweiser ;
a course in Statistics under Professor H. L. Moore;
Research in Chinese History under Professor F. Hirth ;
Philosophy of Religion under Professors D. S. Miller

and C. H. Boynton (G. T. S.^.

123